Taxi Driver is an American Physiological Thriller and Drama directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is about a loner, Travis Bickle, who is played by Robert Di Nero. Travis is a recently discharged Marine who decides to be a taxi driver in New York City. He has chronic insomnia so he spends his nights driving and days in porn theaters. He becomes friends with Iris, played by Jodie Foster, who is a teenage prostitute. He eventually helps Iris get out of prostitution and back home to her family. Travis becomes more and more violent throughout the film; he attempts to assassinate a Senator at a rally and even kills several pimps. He even tries to commit suicide, but runs out of ammunition. Travis Bickle portrays several emotional and behavioral disabilities in the film, Taxi Driver.
The Georgia Department of Education defines Emotional and Behavioral disorders as an “Emotional Disability characterized by an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers. A consistent or chronic inappropriate type of behavior or feelings under normal conditions, a displayed pervasive mood of
…show more content…
unhappiness or depression, and a displayed tendency to develop physical symptoms, pains or unreasonable fears associated with personal or school problems. (Gadeo.org) Travis Bickle shows this disability very evidently in the film.
At the very beginning of the film, the audience gets a clear understanding that he is a loner in the big city of New York. He withdrawals from world around him by driving his taxi, in which he feels alone while millions of people surround him each day. His time as a Marine leads us to believe that something had occurred while he was overseas during the Vietnam War. His inappropriate behavior is evident from his aggression towards others and even himself. His hyperactivity causes his wandering and constant destructive activity. The portrayal of his disability was a bit major, sure it is possible for someone to feel and do what Travis has done, but Scorsese seems to overly create the character and his disability. The audience is never told what has led up to Travis’ behavior, we can only
assume. Many see Travis as negative image for those with the disability because of all that he has done, but Scorsese doesn’t use Travis’ “recklessness” for the audience’s reaction. Before viewing the movie from this perspective, I did perceive the film to put a negative view on those who are diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disorders. But, once I watched it with the assignment in mind, I discovered Scorsese’s true vision. He makes us understand Travis and feel empathy for him because many share this disability. “Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man... June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change. The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.” (Taxi Driver)
...ibit signs of struggles with social functioning (family and friendship problems often related to mistrust from the sufferer), criminal behavior (as there is a disrespect for social norms that relate to laws that need to be followed by all members of society), desires for harmful and impulsive behavior, and a lack of kindness or compassion. One of the top identifying aspects of ASPD is a lack of remorse when an individual steals from, hurts, mistreats, or kills another. Someone can only be diagnosed with ASPD if he or she meets the following criteria; he or she is at least 18 years of age and have shown significant impairment with normal functioning and home, school, and work. However, it wasn’t until 1980 that ASPD finally became a recognized mental disorder that contained a list of sympotms focused on observations that were agreed upon amoung various psychiatrists.
From the beginning of the movie, people seem to have a fascination over a man with a mental disability. After telling his story another
In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.
Walter seems to be a good father to Travis, but starts to lose control by the end of the play. When with Travis, Walter relates too much to money, instead of focusing on their family fun in life. Walter tries to impress Travis with money and thinks that teaching Travis to be rich is the happiest way to go. In the play, it shows that Travis is becoming like his father and is starting to think about money at too young of an age. In scene two in Raisin in the Sun, Travis complains to his mother, Ruth, that he wants to work so he can earn some money. His father responds by giving Travis money and trying to impress him. Walter says to Travis, "In fact, here's another fifty cents... Buy yourself some fruit today or take a taxicab to school or something!"(Page 30). It is all right to be happy with money but it shouldn't be the reason to be proud of your family.
The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1992. Print.
Being able to determine the difference between normal and abnormal behavior is crucial in psychology, but how can someone judge someone’s sanity? It is difficult to put boundaries on such a “soft” area, but there are certain criteria to help in diagnosis. One factor is Bizarreness of the Behavior, which depends greatly on the context in which the behavior occurs. Another is Persistence of Behavior. People can show abnormal behavior without having a mental health problem. However when that abnormal behavior is exhibited on a regular basis, a mental health problem may be present. Another criterion is Subjective Distress, when people are aware of their own psychological difficulties and the distress it brings them. Psychological Handicap is the term used when the subject finds it impossible to be content with life because of their psychological troubles. These are all guidelines to help depict normal and abnormal behavior in psychology.
... middle of paper ... ... Travis, in contrast, does act in order to pursue his ideal, but in such a contradictory and vile fashion that it almost denounces the title of saviour altogether. Ironically, he survives the order, despite attempting to commit suicide, and is lauded as the “taxi driver hero”. He keeps the newspaper clippings praising his heroic endeavor on his wall, perhaps insinuating that he has started to believe that what he has done was heroic, and ultimately justifying what he has done as for the best interest of humankind, and in accordance to the normal interests of “reason, honour, [and] peace” ().
Students who exhibit inappropriate, disruptive behaviors may do so for various reasons. The variety of explanations for problem behavior can cause confusion as to what specific interventions are best suitable for the individual student. There are frequent assumptions that knowing the cause of problematic behavior will assist with the best way to handle it. However, finding an effective intervention does not necessarily indicate the origin of cause for troublesome behavior. In fact, multiple causal factors are interrelated with the most common causal factors being family, school, biological, and culture. In consideration of a previous analysis on biological and family causal factors, this paper is intended to answer the following questions on the potential impact of school and cultural influences on emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD):
He is a man whose psychological workings are dark, twisted, horrifying, and lonely. He is an absurd, anti-hero who is absolutely repulsed by his surroundings, and because he is unable to remove himself from them, he feels justified in removing other people. This profile fits Travis, portrayed by Robert DeNiro in Scorsese's film "Taxi Driver,", and Raskolnikov, the main character of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. Their revulsion for life leads both men to commit cold-blooded murders, but the story lines contain major differences. By contrasting these differences and comparing the common themes of the classic and the film, we may come to a clearer understanding of the purpose of both stories.
Emotional Abuse, (also known as: Verbal abuse, mental abuse, and psychological cruelty) includes acts or the failures to act by parents or caretakers that have caused or could cause serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional or mental disorders. This can include parents and/or caretakers using extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as the child being confined in a closet or dark room, being tied to a chair for long periods of time, or threatening or terrorizing a young mind. Less severe acts, but no less damaging is overly negative criticism or rejecting treatment, using degrading terms to describe the child, constant victimizing or blaming the child for situations.
A known psychological disorder is abnormal behavior. Abnormal behavior is classified into four different categories. The characteristics of these categories consist of statistical deviance, cultural deviance, emotional distress, and dysfunction. Each behavior has specific characteristics as reasons for their classifications. Statistical deviance is sometimes wrongly classified such as being extremely intelligent or being a very good athlete. According to statistical deviance, as the textbook explains, a behavior is abnormal if it occurs infrequently among members of a population. Cultural deviance classifies abnormality to be behavior that would be considered abnormal if it violates standards of a society or culture. Emotional distress is associated with people who are unhappy and who feel as if they are lost or alienated from others. Dysfunction is considered a breakdown of normal functioning. People classified with dysfunction may have thinking impairment and be unable to adapt in their environment. Each of these classifications is somewhat different though they each have the same reasoning.
Therefore, when they do not have the feeling of control or stressed, they would possibly result in emotion dysfunction or shutting down their feelings to avoid getting hurt emotionally. A research shows that “shame-based dysfunction is central to conceptualization of BPD, wherein it has been proposed that individuals with BPD respond with shame to uncontrollable and negative effects as a consequence of developing in environment that shame who show emotional vulnerability”(Howes,303). The research also shows that “shame-prone self-concept may influence perception and behaviours to confer risk to low self-esteem and high levels of anger and impassivity”(Howes,303). These information indicates that individuals with BPD lack of understanding of their own emotions and not able to associate with their feelings. They tend to have stronger emotions and even if they are relatively calm, they still have some negative emotions such as disappointment and anger underlying (Borderline Personality Disorder). Nevertheless, it has been proven that individuals will able to learn and develop skills to deal with their feelings in order to interpret their emotions and avoid mood swings. They will also get better from emotion dysfunction as they grow older because they will be able to view things in different perspectives and have the skills to associate with their mood
Ellis, A. (1971). Emotional disturbances and its treatment in a nutshell. Canadian Counsellor, 5(3), 168-170.
When teaching it must be expected that there will be students that have behavioral disorders. These disorders must be taken into consideration when giving these students the best education possible. Teachers must accommodate to these children and incorporate them into the daily classroom. Every teacher has their own methods of doing this and can use their creativity to come up with these strategies for teaching. Some strategies may not work, so instructors must put much thought into how they are going to accommodate to these particular students.
To begin with, emotional abuse is a type of abuse that can hurt a child psychologically. The reason why this form of abuse can hurt a child psychologically is because it damage the way a child looks at him or herself. There are many different ways one can emotionally abuse someone. Some of these ways include name calling, degrading a child, or even showing no loving affection at all. Calling a child “worthless” or “stupid” is a form of verbal abuse that is categorized under emotional abuse. Caregivers may also constantly blame the child for things that may not even be their fault. When a parent begins purposely ignore the child as a form of punishment he or she is going to feel like they are not wanted or loved.