The Movie As Good as it Gets and Mental Illness
The movie provides an accurate and at times humorous snapshot of what it islike to be afflicted with obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In the movie theviewer witnesses the ways this disorder affects the ability to function innormal society. The protagonist on the surface appears to be a welladjusted well respected writer of best selling novels, however as theviewer sees during the movie he suffers from many compulsions andobsessions that interfere with his ability to function easily. It is thesmall things that illustrate the pervasive ways the disorder interfereswith life. From the fear of germs, which causes him to bring his ownsilverware to the restaurant to the rigidity causing him to insist on thesame table each time he visits the viewer is acutely aware of the turmoilhe faces each day. The scene where the protagonist visits the psychologistafter missing months of appointments underscores the hallmark issues withthe disorder. If one is afraid to leave one's home or one is afraid to stepon cracks in the walk and the office is on a very cracked sidewalk theperson cannot go to the appointments for treatment. In addition toportraying the ways compulsions and obsessions affect the life of the
The movie focuses on one aspect ofthe disorder, and does an excellent job shedding light on that particularaspect, but it leaves many unanswered questions to those who watch themovie and come away wondering about the disorder itself. Sometimes the wayto tell is only when medication for one or the other are introduced andsome of the behaviors disappear while others stay(Woods, 2001). Theportrayal of the character as an authoritarian rigid man dovetails withwhat the second article states. "BASED ON FREUD'S (1907/1961) observation of a resemblance between theobsessional neurotic and the religious collective, a number of researchers(Maltby, 1997) have examined the relationship between measures ofobsessional personality traits, as typified by orderliness, rigidity, andan overemphasis on hygiene and self-control and attitudes towardChristianity, as measured by the adult form of the Francis Scale ofAttitude Toward Christianity (Francis & Stubbs, 1987). Tourettes Syndrome is sometimes hard to differentiate with ObsessiveDisorder because of the many like components that they share(Woods, 2001). "The genetic basis of OCD has been supported by many studies conductedsince 1936, all suggesting that OCD runs in families, says CAMH staffpsychiatrist Dr. This is ironic as many with OCDactually feel TOO much and this plays into the OCD's existence. The co-morbid aspects of the disorder is one that is not touched on whichis disheartening because of its very important aspect of the disorder. The fact that the themes of the obsessions or compulsions are frequentlydifferent (with father, for instance, ruminating about diseases anddaughter obsessing about germs) lends itself to an argument for OCD beinghereditary rather than learned. net/journal/journalv3no2/ocd_maybe_inherited. The rigidity is not easily explained by the personwith OCD so it does not take much for the person to appear as a grouchy,critical, rude, and inflexible human being. The viewer is not given any indication of the protagonist ever sufferedtraumatic events in his life as a child or adult. As the movie progresses he learns to conquer some of these rigid feelingshe has, while not being able to let go of others. A genetic basis for the disorder is particularlylikely when a child develops it very early on(All in the Family: OCD may beinheritedhttp://www.
Common topics in this essay:
Family OCD,
Compulsive Disorder,
Bale Drummond,
Helen Hunt,
Obsessive Disorder,
OCD Tourettes,
BASED FREUD'S,
Francis Stubbs,
Richter Frequently,
,
obsessional personality,
personality traits,
obsessional personality traits,
family ocd inheritedhttp//wwwcamhnet/journal/journalv3no2/ocd_maybe_inheritedhtml,
disorder movie,
ocd inheritedhttp//wwwcamhnet/journal/journalv3no2/ocd_maybe_inheritedhtml,
compulsions obsessions,
basis ocd,
attitudes christianity,
family ocd,
personality traits attitudes,
traits attitudes,
article focuses,
relationship measures obsessional,
authoritarian personalitymaltby 1997,
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