Personality Disorders In Mommie Dearest

909 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Chapter 18 anxiety disorders

Personality Disorders in Mommie Dearest Personality Disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress the affected individual. Psychological Disorders is an illness that an individual experience as episodes, and clearly distinguished from personality. While we aren’t trained psychologists, everyone can learn how to learn these disorders and identify them in movies and TV, or even real life! A movie that can help you learn how to identify and have a better understanding of these disorders is “Mommie Dearest”. This movie is based off a book about a famous actress Joan Crawford who had multiple disorders. The disorders Joan Crawford possessed was Bipolar, Narcissistic, Obsessive Compulsive Personality …show more content…

Some symptoms of bipolar would be inflated self-esteem, inability to sit still or sleep restfully, pressure to keep talking or switch topics, racing thoughts, and difficulty concentrating. Bipolar can be caused by genetics and one’s environment. Some examples in the movie “Mommie Dearest” Joan Crawford showed was the scene where Joan and her current boyfriend were walking on the beach and she was talking about wanting kids and was perfectly fine for the most part until she started talking about she wanted her kids to have a father unlike her and she suddenly became mad and began ranting about how her father was never around. Another way Joan Crawford displayed bipolar disorder was when she just received the news over the phone that she received a part that she auditioned for until she went to tell her daughter Christine and saw her pretending to receive an award and she became outraged and cut Christine’s …show more content…

Some symptoms are anxiety about time, cleanliness, and worry about money, which causes them to work more than needed. Causes of OCPD is not entirely clear, but psychologist believe it is a combination of genetics and environment. One of the scenes that display OCPD was when Joan and her maids were cleaning her house and one of her maids neglected to move a pot when she waxed the floor, which caused a ring of dirt and Joan said, “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the dirt.” then her current boyfriend showed up and she disregarded the dirt ring. Another prime example was at the beginning of the movie when she was getting ready for bed or for the day, not exactly clear about it, but it showed her vigorously washing her hands, face, and body in general with scalding hot

Show More
Related

  • Joan Crawford: Psychological Disorders

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    “No wire hangers, ever!” Joan Crawford spoke to Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest the movie. The scene where Joan says this is just one example of her having one or more psychological disorder. Psychological disorders are behavior patterns that cause a person to anguish. Also, they may cause a person to obstruct the capability to manage everyday activities (Rathus, 2010). Joan displays many psychological disorders, but the most visible are bipolar disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

    Read More

  • Silver Linings Playbook Sparknotes

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    The viewpoint of mental illness portrays that mental illness is a common mechanism when dealing with stress or drastic changes. Many people are not as exposed with people who have mental disorders. This movie brings in two extremely different people, but they find themselves falling for each other despite their extra baggage. Tiffany has a heavy baggage she is carrying around. She could not accept the fact that Tommy left her suddenly. Although Tiffany’s character seems odd and dysfunctional, this movie portrays Tiffany, as a woman and a person, trying to move on. This film accurately portrays this disorder. There are some Hollywood viewpoints of mental illness, but this movie accurately portrays Tiffany as someone with borderline personality disorder. She shows many signs of borderline personality disorder symptoms. Many viewers can sense that areas in her life are dysfunctional and not

    Read More

  • Categories of Bipolar Disorder

    2518 Words  | 6 Pages

    Bipolar Disorder (Formerly known as Manic Depression) is a mental illness linked to alterations in moods such as mood swings, mania, and depression. There is more than one type, Bipolar I and Bipolar II, and the subcategories are divided by the severity of the symptoms seen, such as cyclothymic disorder, seasonal mood changes, rapid cycling disorder and psychosis. Age of onset usually occurs between 15-30 years old with an average onset of 25 years old but it can affect all ages. (Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital , 2013) Bipolar disorder affects more than two million people in the United States every year. (Gardner, 2011)

    Read More

  • A Paper on Bipolar Disorder

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    The symptoms of bipolar are inability to complete tasks (could turn you into a compulsive hoarder or you just not able to complete all your tasks on time or when you want to finish them), depression (could have you wanting to kill yourself or maybe you don’t want to eat a lot could happen with the depression part of this disorder), irritability (you could just be going off on your loved ones and they didn’t even do anything and make them feel down and the it will be more than one person mad or irritated), rapid don’t like someone who talks a lot. no one wants to be around someone who talks your ear off so that’s bad period), trouble at work ( If you have trouble at work that could get you fired at work for whatever you did unless your boss is just cool and he/she just understands), and erratic behaviors (could lead to you having affairs that you would have never thought of having) which all of these could lead to other things. Bipolar does not have a specific cause; it is a complex disorder with multiple contributing factors; one is genetic. Sometimes bipolar tends to run in peoples families. Another factor is biological.

    Read More

  • Disco Di Case Study

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this century, mental health have become just as important as physical health. Abnormal psychology is the category of psychology that explains each mental illness that human suffer from. In the case of “Disco Di”, Diana Miller is about a young girl who is registered in a psychiatric hospital for treatment for exhibiting traits that are associated with a mental illness after a long period of challenges. She is diagnosed with major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder. Is this the correct diagnosis?

    Read More

  • Bipolar Disorder and the Creative Genius

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    Patients with bipolar disorder swing between major depressive, mixed, hypomanic, and manic episodes. (1-9) A major depressive episode is when the patient has either a depressed mood or a loss of interest/pleasure in normal activities for a minimum of two weeks. Specifically, the patient should have (mostly): depressed mood for most of the day, nearly every day; diminished interest or pleasure in activities; weight loss or gain (a difference of 5% either way in the period of a month); insomnia or hypersomnia; psychomotor agitation or retardation; fatigue or loss of energy; diminished ability to think or concentrate; feelings of worthlessness; recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation or attempt. It is important to note that, except for the last symptom, all of these symptoms must be ...

    Read More

  • Bipolar and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in Literature

    1890 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function.

    Read More

  • Understanding Personality and Mood Disorders: Insights from Mommie Dearest

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nearly 1 out of 5 Americans suffer from some kind of personality or mood disorder (Mental Health by the Numbers, 2017), are you one of them? To identify that you need to understand what it is, a personality disorder are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress that affected individual (Rathus, 2010). Personality disorders aren’t the only thing that affect us, because there are also mood disorders which are your general emotional state or mood is distorted or inconsistent with your circumstances and interferes with your ability to function. (Rathus, 2010) You may be extremely sad, and empty and then all of sudden you become really happy. To learn how to identify these disorders is through a movie. The film Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry, is a story about Joan Crawford in the mid 1960’s who traumatized her daughter, Christina. So later in Christina’s life she wrote the book Mommie Dearest to

    Read More

  • Bipolar Brain Chemistry

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to understand the effects of said malfunctions, it is vital to brief crash course in what it means to be bipolar. This disorder is typically characterized by periods of intense mania, followed closely by deep, unadulterated depression with “mixed” periods sprinkled throughout. Manic periods are characterized by intense feelings of euphoria. This may seem like a positive, however these phases typically lead to bouts of impaired judgment. Behaviors can become grandiose in nature and look extremely hyperactive. The person may have raised libido, want to stay up all night, and exhibit overall decreased inhibition. The depression that follows these bouts of ecstasy comes quickly, and they are both dark and unforgiving. Individuals with bipolar disorder lack a middle groun...

    Read More

  • Multiple Personality Disorder (DID)

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    On one hand you have Kim Noble, who was on the extreme level where these personalities controlled her and her lifestyle. They stopped her from being able to function properly in a social and even occupational setting. Then on the other side of the spectrum, you have Hershel Walker who copes with the disorder. He is able to utilize each personality to his advantage and switch when needed, as he quotes “it’s just personalities that can do different things for you…. It’s a coping mechanism” (Part 1). Based on both spectrums, I believe that gender, socioeconomic, and even culture/environment plays a role in why they are completely different but yet have the same disorder. In these two cases, we have a male and a female. One was born to abusive parents who traumatized her and another grew up being bullied. In addition, you have one who grew up facing more stressors like her child almost being taken away and then the other one grew up to be famous and successful. Lastly, you have one in an environment where everyone is effected by the disorder because they’ve encountered it from the beginning and on the other hand you have one where he has to convince people that he actually has the disorder. Based on these difference, I believe that is why Kim Noble and Hershel Walker are on two opposite sides of the spectrum. Kim Noble had to face many traumatic events that only BEGAN in her childhood. Then you have Hershel Walker who was bullied and then grew up to be successful so his trauma and disorder was masked. Even though they both took two different approaches, they both have the same disorder. Noble, has a more severe case while Walker has a mild. In the end, these differences in backgrounds depicted why they are on opposing spectrum sides. My last point that I believe is a factor in this disorder is gender. When comparing the two, Hershel’s alters were more aggressive than

    Read More

  • Types Of Personality Disorder In The Movie Mommie Dearest

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are two different kinds of disorders, personality disorders and psychological disorders. Psychological disorders are illnesses that an individual experiences as episodes. Personality disorders are enduring traits that are major components of the individual's personality (Rathus, 2010). No matter what kind of disorder a person may possess their lives are affected everyday by them, it takes over their body and consumes them as a person. Disorders are often misunderstood. You do not have the ability to make a split second decision and then continue life without that disorder, it will take lots of counseling. While we are not trained psychologist everyone can learn or identify disorders in popular movies or television shows. In the movie, Mommie Dearest, directed by Frank Perry, Joan Crawford possesses several of these disorders, including bipolar, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.

    Read More

  • Personality Disorder In Mommie Dearest

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joan Crawford, was one of the most popular and well known actresses in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Although her life was more extraordinary than mundane, she suffered from multiple personality disorders, as do many Americans. Personality disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and may distress the affected individual (Rathus, 2016). The movie Mommie Dearest, captures moments in Crawford’s life that show her struggles with her personality disorders. Throughout the movie, you watch her personalities become more prominent and abusive. Her main disorders include borderline and paranoid personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as histrionic and narcissistic personality disorder.

    Read More

  • Mommie Dearest Borderline Personality Disorder

    451 Words  | 1 Pages

    Most personality disorders start when you are a child. “Personality Disorders are patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life or work and any destress the affected individual.” (Rathus, 2010, p. 525). People with paranoid personality disorders think that people are always out to hurt them. They find others actions as threatening. People with borderline personality disorder are moody. They tend to hurt themselves somehow. People with this disorder are hard to have any time of relationship with. The academy award winning film Mommie Dearest directed by Frank Perry accurately conforms to how the aspects of paranoid personality disorder and borderline personality disorder can affect ones’ everyday life.

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Movie Psycho

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a psychological thriller that was created in 1960. The main theme of this film revolves around psychological illnesses. The film focuses on the main character, Norman Bates, and his psychological problems which include a split personality, voyeurism, sadism, guilt and self-punishment, and anal fixation. Throughout the movie you can see Bates exhibit these traits at different points; however, some traits are not as clearly evident as others. This film takes an in-depth look at how someone who possesses a mental illness might behave or think.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay On Anxiety

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many symptoms that lead to the conclusion that someone is suffering from OCD. A person may have a fear of germs, wanting things to be in perfect order constantly, and unwanted thoughts. The compulsions in OCD are the acts that a person feels obliged to do and this may include repeatedly washing hands, excessively cleaning and washing hands and counting regularly. Life with OCD is generally hard and the sufferer generally does not get any relief or satisfaction until they are able to perform their rituals (National Institute of Mental health,

    Read More

More about Personality Disorders In Mommie Dearest

Open Document