Similarities Between Good Will Hunting And The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness affecting people who have experienced trauma or witnessed another's traumatic experience. Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Adults”, n.d. “State and Country Quickfacts: USA”, n.d.), so it's important to raise awareness for these diseases. An effective method of educating the public is through film, but inaccurate portrayals of mental illness could actually encourage stereotypes of disorders. Therefore, filmmakers should make movies like Good Will Hunting and The Perks of Being a Wallflower which provide accurate portrayals of PTSD and raise awareness about this disorder.

Good Will Hunting tells the story of 20 year-old Will Hunting, a physical

abuse victim suffering from PTSD. He lives in an impoverished Boston neighbourhood, working as a janitor at MIT. When Will solves a complex proof at MIT, his genius mathematical ability is discovered by mathematics professor Dr.Lambeau. After Will is involved in a violent streetfight, he is permitted to forego jail time if he works with Dr.Lambeau on mathematical problems and also receives psychotherapy. Will initially refuses to cooperate with psychologists, but finally the empathetic Dr.Maguire is able to connect with him. Maguire discovers that Will's foster father physically abused him as a child, explaining Will's PTSD symptoms: aggressiveness and a decreased interest in activities, among other behaviours. These symptoms manifest themselves in the violent streetfight Will instigates with a former classmate, and his lack of motivation to work highly intelligent jobs because he prefers the safety of his old routine as a janitor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows Charlie through his first year of high school. Charlie has suffered PTSD since the death of his Aunt Helen in a car crash. Charlie is bullied for being socially awkward and introverted, and struggles to make new friends. As such, when compassionate high school seniors Sam and Patrick befriend Charlie, he becomes extremely attached to them. Still, his symptoms worsen at Christmas on the anniversary of Aunt Helen's death, and his stressful flashbacks of her cause him to pass out. When all his older friends leave for college, Charlie suffers a breakdown that nearly pushes him to suicide. His psychiatrist discovers that Charlie's PTSD was caused by Aunt Helen sexually abusing him as a child, memories of which Charlie had repressed over time. Charlie eventually recovers and is able to live a happier life.

Will and Charlie display many behavioural symptoms of PTSD, which are organized into four criteria that must be satisfied to make a full diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Firstly, trauma is re-experienced long after the original event. Charlie constantly re-experiences the horror of Aunt Helen's death in flashbacks to the night she died and his sexual abuse. Will's brutal fistfights are a re-experiencing of his trauma. The second criterion is the avoidance of stimuli that remind the victim of the trauma. Charlie actively avoids anything that worsens his flashbacks during Christmas, the anniversary of Aunt Helen's death. Will represses his memories by lying about his family history to avoid confronting the truth of his abuse. Thirdly, the trauma causes negative changes in cognition and mood. Charlie suffers from dissociative amnesia, the inability to remember aspects of his trauma (like Aunt Helen abusing him and his violent involvement in a fight to protect his gay friend Patrick). Charlie also has a distorted perspective when laying blame (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); he wrongly blames himself for things that are not his fault, like Aunt Helen's death. Will similarly has a distorted perspective of blame, except that he blames others for his problems. His hatred of wealthy people stems from his poor upbringing where financial stress nay have caused his foster father to abuse him. Finally, negative changes in arousal are observed. Will's overly

irritable and aggressive nature often puts him in confrontational situations. Charlie only shows one instance of aggression when he is involved in a fistfight to protect his friend Patrick, but has also experienced self-destructive behaviour when he contemplated suicide. Both Will and Charlie show symptoms of all four criteria, ensuring a diagnosis of PTSD in both boys.

Will and Charlie both receive treatment for their PTSD.

Dr.Maguire helps Will by generally using empathetic psychodynamic therapy, encouraging the intimate discussion of the client's symptoms and the effects on the client's life. By providing clients with meaningful self-insight on their experiences, psychodynamic therapy is useful for people with a traumatic childhood. But the most important aspect of Dr.Maguire's method is his strong relationship with Will. Other psychologists failed with Will by using outdated therapies like “free association” and not creating an empathetic relationship. Good Will Hunting has thus humorously dealt with the stereotypes of outdated psychotherapies and incompetent therapists. Charlie also receives psychodynamic therapy, though the film doesn't depict the exact dynamics of this treatment. Charlie's situation differs from Will's in that he isn't treated until he is hospitalized for a severe mental breakdown, while Will is treated before his mental condition can deteriorate. Charlie's sessions with psychiatrist Dr.Burton help him recover, and he continues seeing her on a weekly basis after his release from hospital. If Charlie and Will had received therapy sooner in life, their more severe symptoms may have been

prevented.

In general, both films successfully raise awareness about PTSD and unravel various mental illness stigmas. The Perks of Being a Wallflower has a big impact on audiences since the story is from Charlie's perspective, making it easy to comprehend his torment. Good Will Hunting shows the struggle of a young man bravely attempting to conceal the effect of PTSD on his life. These films promote the idea that meaningful, trusting relationships with loved ones and therapists are important in the treatment of PTSD and that timely treatment is essential to preventing further negative impacts on a victim. Though slightly dramatized, these two movies provide the public with a realistic glimpse into the lives of PTSD victims and how we may better understand this disorder to help these people heal in the future.