The Aviator might seem like a film solely about an eccentric millionaire obsessed with planes and producing films, but the main focus of the film lies in its analysis of a man whose life is dominated by a worsening obsessive compulsive disorder. Howard Hughes exhibits many of the DSM criteria for OCD, starting with persistent impulses causing anxiety. Hughes is consumed with repetitive behaviors, from specific numbers of peas on his plate to the rivets on one of his planes. He has to count everything to make sure it is up to his specifications, even extending to the color of his clothes. Another repetitive behavior exhibited by Hughes, and used as an example by the DSM, is his pension for hand washing. Hughes uses his own soap to wash his …show more content…
Hughes has an unreasonable, persistent fear of germs as displayed through both his compulsive hand washing and his sheer annoyance whenever he sees something as unclean. He can’t finish his meal when someone eats one of his peas, he doesn’t touch doorknobs and refuses to shake hands in a scene, citing “grease,” when in actuality he fears the situation of exposure to germs. Hughes takes extreme steps to avoid germ exposure, making his assistants wear gloves and putting a plastic cover over the wheel of his plane. Hughes phobia worsens along with his OCD, climaxing in his self imposed isolation in which he uses tissues when he has to pick objects up, all of this done to create a “germ free zone.” Mysophobia is directly connected with actively avoiding anything appearing unclean, and Hughes does everything he can to not encounter the ever present …show more content…
It’s important to note that the film already had a guide for how to depict the illness’ affect on Hughes as many of his aides witnessed his compulsions. In most films it's much more difficult to portray mental conditions such as OCD or germaphobia as scenarios need to be created, while here Hughes was well documented enough that the situations write themselves. However, I will commend The Aviator for not portraying any of Hughes’ conditions in a comedic way. Everything is taken extremely seriously and I think it takes an accomplished director like Martin Scorsese to make the audience feel emotionally connected to a character who sits naked in a room watching movies all day. The film really gets the ritualistic component of OCD down, we see every activity multiple times. Never does Hughes only do something strange once, as OCD fundamentally deals with repeated convulsions. As the film plays I constantly anticipated the next bout of hand washing or germ related complaint, as the film clearly establishes the extent of how these conditions affect Hughes. The sheer extent that the conditions affect Hughes’ life is conveyed extremely well, lovers leave him due to his paranoia about being watched, his airline struggles due to his germ free isolation and throughout it is easily observable that Hughes wants to overcome these conditions, but simply cannot. The bathroom scene
Unger’s obsessive compulsive disorder which has led to depression and attempted suicide. People with obsessive compulsive disorder suffer from unwanted and often intrusive thoughts that they can’t get out of their heads. They are often compelled to repeatedly do tasks in a ritualistic way in an attempt to eliminate their anxiety. They are most often aware that their obsessions or compulsions are irrational; however, they are still powerless to stop them and may spend countless hours doing these tasks over and over. This can and often does interfere with a person’s normal live and may make them less productive and successful at work, school, socially and even with family. If left untreated OCD will eventually interfere with all aspects of a person’s life
Ronson discovers the DSM textbook, which consists of all of the listed mental disorders. He then went through the list and wondered if he has any of the 374 disorders and if there was any org...
In psychology, there are various schools of thought when approaching a particular psychological problem. Each may view the scenario from a different avenue of approach, and their methods and techniques used to treat the problem may also vary. This paper will discuss case scenario three, involving a man named John who appears to be exhibiting obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). With this example, the paper will discuss the various schools of thought in psychological theory, their techniques, and recommendations for treatment; to include how this knowledge could be applied to my current professional work.
OCD is broken down into two components the obsession and the compulsion. The first component; obsession is when an individual is consistently having these reoccurring thoughts or images about a certain problem or issue in their life. For example; an individual that has OCD can have a constant thought or image about getting sick or dying from the various germs or diseases that people contract every day. So this individual goes to the extreme to make sure that they do not contract any of these germs or diseases. That is when the compulsive component begins. This is when the individual takes these extreme actions to protect themselves from whatever they have these high anxiety feelings about. So continuing using the same example; this individual will consistently clean their homes every day for several hours at a time. They tend to clean their hands several times when out in public and are very tedious about where they go and what they touch while in public. They are also very caution about how they interact with other people. They just take extra steps to protect themsel...
The protagonist in the film As Good As It Gets, Melvin Udall is a successful romantic novelist who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. From the onset of the film, Melvin displays ritualistic behavior that aligns with the diagnostic criteria for OCD, specifically the presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both. This paper focuses on Melvin’s particular psychopathology, analyzing the character’s current symptoms and diagnoses, the etiology of the disorder, and the key elements of his treatment.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a disease that afflicts up to six million Americans, however all its characteristics are yet to be fully understood. Its causes, triggers, attributes, and variations are still unknown although effective medicines exist to treat the symptoms. OCD is a very peculiar disease as Rapoport discusses it comes in many different forms and have different symptoms yet have many similarities. One sure aspect is that it appears, or at least its symptoms do, out of the blue and is triggered either by stressful experiences or, most of the time, just appears out of nowhere. One example is a boy who's father was hard on him for being affected by the worlds "modern ways", the boy at a high school party tries LSD ( a hallucinatory drug), after that thoughts of whether his mind was dangerously affected by the drug. What seemed like completely appropriate worrying and anxiety turned into attacks of anxiety, he couldn't shake the thoughts that something was wrong with his mind. Essentially he had "his mind on his mind" constantly and that haunted his days his thought were as follows: " did the lsd do anything to my mind? The thought never went away ; instead it got more and more complicated. There must be something wrong with my mind if i am spending so much time worrying about it. Is there something wrong with my mind? Was this from the lsd? Will it ever get better?" (The boy who, J. L. Rapoport 125,126) Dr. Rapoport promptly put him on Anafranil (an anti-depressant, used for OCD, not marketed in the U.
Abnormal Psychology Abnormal psychology in the area within psychology that is focused on maladaptive behavior-its causes, consequences, and treatment. Abnormal psychology deals with how it feels to be different, the meanings the get attached to being different, and how society deals with people whom it considers to be different. The spectrum of differences is wide, ranging from reality defying delusions and severe debilitations to worries and behavioral quirks that we would be better off not having but do not significantly interfere with our daily lives. An example of the milder end of the spectrum is a man who was an eminently successful district attorney, was elected governor of New York on three occasions, and was almost elected president of the United States in 1948. This man, Thomas E. Dewy, reached the pinnacle of success, displaying such qualities as rectitude, efficiency, precision, and nearly limitless capacity for hard work.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder which causes people to develop an anxiety when certain obsessions or compulsions are not fulfilled. OCD can affect both children and adults with more than half of all adults with OCD stating that they experienced signs as a child. People living with OCD display many obvious signs such as opening and closing a door fifty times because they have to do it “just right”. Others exhibit extreme cleanliness and will wash their hands or take showers as often as they can because they constantly feel dirty. OCD devastates people’s social lives as they are fixated and obsessed with perfection that can take forever to achieve. However people living with OCD are often found to have an above average intelligence and typically excel at school due to their detail oriented mindset, cautious planning and patience. OCD can be caused by many different factors such as genetics or the ever changing world a...
Some symptoms of Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are fear of germs, perfectionism, and rituals. When someone has OCD they are afraid of germs and might constantly be washing their hands or cleaning their room. Someone who suffers from OCD needs everything to be perfect and they might organize their closet by color size. Their rituals calm their anxiety. Certain rituals are things such as checking the stove a certain number of times to make sure it is off or tap their finger a number of times just because it makes them feel better. Obsessive compulsive disorder can be associated with other mental disorders that cause stress and anxiety, but it can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy and medication.
All people have to double check things once in a while, like if a door is locked or if the lights are off. But people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, have an urge to check and recheck items and the disorder “controls” what people do, and how people do tasks by causing them to repeatedly see how something looks or if something is organized. OCD can be a challenging disorder to live with as it causes anxiety levels to build up.
Obsession can make you do rash things in order to achieve the goal surround the obsession. Whenever someone’s passion boils over into almost all other aspects of their life, making them do things like cut out sleep, or doing everything necessary to keep a solid mental state, or making rash decisions that could endanger their life, the passion has transformed into an obsession. In 2004 drama and biography, The Aviator, Howard Hughes put his obsession for making the fastest plane over his own physical and mental health, time and again. “My limbs now tremble … but then a resistless, and almost frantic impulse, urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” (Vol. I, Ch. 3). Just like Hughes, Frankenstein did not tend to his mental health while attempting to achieve his goals. Victor fell into near debilitating depressions constantly throughout the novel. His family and friends spent months trying to rehabilitate him, while the paranoia of the creature, ate away at his mind. “I could never … confide to [Clerval] that event which was so present to my recollection…” (Vol. I, Ch. 5). They both gave up almost all of their pursuits, paranoid that something could happen that would ruin them forever. Hughes had a business to protect, and rashly bought whomever and whatever he needed for his films and planes without
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can be best characterized by the recurrent or disturbing thoughts that are labeled as obsessions. Sometime these obsessions can take on the form of intrusive images or the unwanted impulses. The compulsions can come from the repetitive or ritualized behaviors that a person feels driven to perform on a daily basis. The majority of people with the diagnosis of OCD can have both obsessions and compulsions, but most of the times about 20% have obsessions alone while 10% may have the compulsions alone (Goodman M.D., 2013) . Common types that have been illustrated in individual’s diagnoses with OCD can be characterized with concerns of contamination, safety or harm to themselves, unwanted acts of aggression, the unacceptable sexual or religious thoughts, and the need for symmetry or exactness. While some of the most common compulsion can be characterized as excessive cleaning, checking, ordering, and arranging rituals or the counting and repeating routines activities that are done sometimes on a daily basis multiple times in a day.
Obsessions are the unpleasant thoughts or impulses that cause the person with the disorder to have lots of anxiety and edginess. The thoughts may include things such as perfect order of things in a house, perfect hygiene, or the fear that they are going to hurt someone. Obsessions can be violent or sexual.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is the most common anxiety disorder plaguing two to three percent of people (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder can affect an individual in many ways emotionally and physically. In the movie Matchstick Men the main character depicts the hardships of obsessive-compulsive disorder and how they can affect an individual’s life.
Howard Hughes appears to be the world’s most brilliant and eccentric aviator and movie director in the film The Aviator (Mann & Scorsese, 2004). He is admired, wealthy and powerful. However, throughout the course of the film, his eccentricities lead to significant impairment. Paranoia, impulsivity and fears of contamination plague his thoughts and behaviors. He becomes unable to cope with being in public and he cannot maintain personal or professional relationships. As a result, Howard is left isolated, losing his social support and success. It is evident that he has symptoms that are characteristic of both obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar I disorder. His behaviors become so impairing and distressing that they impact every sphere of