Lesson 9 - Sybil

Sally Field plays many "roles" in this psychologically intense show, Sybil (1976). It tells a story of how a girl contracted DID ("dissociative identity disorder", or formerly known as "multiple personality disorder") as a result of childhood trauma cause by, what we see to be, mostly her mother. Eventually she sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur who helps her out of the disorder.

The portrayal of DID was in my opinion, quite accurate.

Whether the portrayal of DID was accurate?
Based on the DSM-IV-TR:
Criteria for DID:
1. Presence of 2 or more distinct identities, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and the self. Check!
2. At least 2 of the identities recurrently take control of the person's behaviour. Check!
3. Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness . Check!


Examples in the movie: 
1. Vanessa+Vicky+Peggy+Mike+Nancy+Ruthie++Ellen+Marcia+Mary+Clara+Sid+.... = Sybil
(You get the picture)
2. Vanessa, Vicky and Peggy very frequently emerge and take control of Sybil. 
3. During a therapy session, Sybil shared that there were times where she would wake up, and it would be 2 years later! The only logical explanation for it is that she lost all memory of those two years, too much to be an episode of ordinary forgetfulness! 

 

Above: Sybil often bursts into tears 

when she is with her psychiatrist as 

she frequently experiences vivid flashbacks. 

It is all often too confusing and scary for her. 

Consistent with the characteristics of DID, Sybil had more than 2 distinct identities which alternated in taking control of behaviour. She had inability to recall personal information that was in-explainable by normal forgetfulness. Each of her identities had their individual self-history, self-image and name. Her host identity was not always Sybil, more often than not, it was Vicky, the most well-adjusted personality. Her alter identities had striking differences in their age, gender, handedness, sexual orientation, need for corrective eye-wear, languages spoken and general knowledge. Each identity's needs and behaviours were also different; and Sybil would assume different roles at different points of the show, perhaps as and when the need arose.

Considering all the points above, yes! The portrayals of DID were quite accurate.

Whether or not the treatments were useful? 
In my opinion, what Dr. Wilbur did was fairly realistic. Treatments to DID is psychodynamic and focuses on working on resolving and uncovering past hurt and trauma that the patient has experienced, as well as working through these traumatic events in an insight-oriented manner. In the movie, Dr. Wilbur spent session after session talking to Sybil's multiple personalities and through these conversations, helped Sybil recover past memories and often traumatic childhood memories. We see that as these memories became more vivid, Sybil's alter egos would emerge as a reaction to deal with the "situation". After that, what Dr. Wilbur did was to integrate the identities/personalities back into one identity. Dr. Wilbur was patient and took the time to allow Sybil to be in a safe environment. This helped facilitate her transitions from personality to personality as Sybil was comfortable enough to allow those personalities to show. Though in the end Sybil did get better, we do not know to what extent she was better and whether the disorder relapsed in the future. Therefore based on what was portrayed in the film, I would say it was moderately useful.

All in all, the show was psychologically thrilling and enlightening a bit creeeeeepy and dark. Having said that, I think Sally Field pulled off each personality very well, as many find it hard to even play one character with full passion. She did multiple roles, and pretty well too! Thumbs up for her skills!


For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075296/
Sneak peek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_Z6-v4uT0
Reference: Butcher, J., Mineka, S. & Hooley, J.M. (2010). Abnormal Psychology. USA: Pearson Education Inc.

Lesson 8 - Parenthood

Parenthood (1989) was entertaining on so many different levels! 

To name a few priceless moments, there's:
1. Steve Martin running around with children in a cowboy suit making intestinal figures out of balloons.

 

2. Keanu Reeves looking nothing like and having a character that probably shames "Neo" in "The Matrix".

 

3. "The Diarrhoea Song", by Kevin Buckman. 'Nuff said.


This story is about a family...

 .....

Yup, this BIG, extended family =) 

... and the experiences of the siblings, (Gil, Susan, Helen, Larry) now married, and parents themselves. The main theme that is reflected in this movie would be different parenting styles that they practice. It also shows the interwoven relationships within the family and how though chaos may be prevalent, in the end, love is the thing that really keeps them together. 


According to Diana Baumrind, there is a three-group classification system for parenting, which was based on the dimensions of control/demandingness and responsiveness. You could say on a scale, that these parenting styles range from "too strict" to " too soft". Examples are as follows: 


1. Authoritarian 
- Parents are rigid and demanding, expecting children to be high in maturity, discipline and supervision.
We see this in Patty's father, Nathan, who expects his daughter to be "nurtured in the right environment" and therefore spends all his time educating her with extreme amounts of academic knowledge so much so that he deprives her of having a "normal childhood" until she loses the skills of relating to other children her age and does not know how to have fun. 

2. Authoritative
- Parents are moderately demanding and responsive. They are firm but not too rigid, they are permissive to a certain degree. They try their best to be involved however they do not overindulge their children. 
Gil and Karen were authoritative parents. They allowed their children to have fun, and even went the extra mile for them (ie: when Gil dressed up and acted as a cowboy during Kevin's birthday party; when Gil and Karen rummaged through the garbage for Kevin's retainers). Though we do not see them punishing their children, we see the effects of good parenting - their children are obedient and well behaved. 


3. Permissive 

- Parents are overly responsive and too supportive of their children to the extend where there are no boundaries and too many inconsistencies are present. This results in the children being spoiled and overindulgent as they constantly get their way and have no structure to their lives. 
Helen was overly permissive to her children, resulting in them growing up to be inconsiderate children who did as they pleased. They even did things behind their mother's back (Her daughter Julie brought home a boy, Todd, with her and did unspeakable things with him in her own room; her son who watched porn and smashed up his father's office one night). They had no regard for the feelings of others and bullied their mother even though she tried so hard to please them. 


Contemporary researchers have added another category to parenting styles, neglectful parenting, or parenting whereby the parent is not responsive nor are they controlling. We see that in Larry, who comes home with a boy he just found out is his son, whom he conveniently names "Cool". 


It is interesting to see the dynamics of the family and how experiences for them in their childhood manifest or become contributing factors in how they treat their children in the future. 
Research has shown significant associations in parenting styles across generations. Parenting habits, whether good or bad tend to be passed on to children. In the show, we see that in Gil's perspective, his father was not a good father to him as a child. He therefore tries to be a perfect dad and tries to give his children his best. However, he finds that it is close to impossible to be a perfect dad and feels discouraged when he slips up. However, he learns from his grandmother, that parenting life is like a roller coaster, one that takes you up and down; and in time, he finds there is much joy in that, and sharing the journey with his wonderful wife Karen makes it all the more, better. 


All in all, this show.....

Reminded me of my thesis, which happens to revolve around the same topic of parenting. 

So Yeah. 

BoOoOo =(

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098067/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgrbuRNc-AQ

Reference: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/bornsteinANGxp.pdf

Lesson 7 - The Fisher King

Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges star in this interestingly mystical, comedic-fantasy production, "The Fisher King" (1991). In layman's terms, Jeff Bridges plays Jack Lucas, an outspoken, sort of narcissistic, not-so-wise radio DJ, while Robin Williams plays Parry, a crazy man (Okay, he's not really crazy, just psychologically traumatized, leading him to start hallucinating and being delusional).

=)

One day, their (Jack and Parry's) pathways cross due to a horrific incident: a shooting, which results in Parry having to witness his wife's death, and Jack, who finds out that it was his comment over the radio that actually drove the shooter to go on the shooting spree. Meeting Parry by chance (Parry saved his life!), Jack
feels guilty and tries to redeem Parry and at the same time redeem his own life. To do this he goes through a series of events which teaches him a lesson or two about life and love.



First of all, this movie is reflective of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Schizophrenia on the part of Parry. He first experiences catatonia after experiencing the traumatic event, and subsequently experiences hallucinations and delusions (which will be elaborated in later paragraphs).

This movie is full of symbolic representation and whilst comedic in nature, holds a deeper meaning for the viewers to interpret. Following Parry's PTSD, he also experiences hallucinations, delusions of persecution as well as delusions of grandeur (part and parcel of Schizophrenia). He believes that he is on a mission to retrieve the Holy Grail (For more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_King). This pursue possibly symbolizes a search for grace and peace on Parry's part. At the same time he keeps seeing and hearing "the Red Knight", which could be a symbol of trauma. He gets Panic attacks when he sees this monster and it is so real to him that he just runs away, terrified, leaving other people around staring at him wondering what is happening.

Above: The Red Knight chasing Parry

We see toward the end of the movie that all Parry needed was some closure in his life, following his wife's death. While recovering from an attack by hooligans, Parry asks, "Is it ok for me to miss her now?", probably a reflection that he had been finding it hard to let go, and therefore was experiencing unrest and agitation in his life. He needed to know and acknowledge that the hole in his life possibly may never be filled the same way again. Once he was able to let go, he could move on and was at peace.

Above: Parry expressing his love toward Lydia after dinner. 

Lydia finds it hard to believe that someone would

actually love her. 

On Jack's part, he was on a quest for redemption. He probably felt a strong sense of guilt as well as an overriding sense of responsibility for Parry's fate. Throughout the film, he tries hard to help Parry, first "matchmaking/setting him up" with Lydia (by going on a double dinner-date), and secondly by retrieving the "Holy Grail". This could be considered his way of penance, his way of making things right again. An interesting scene was where he was in the midst of attaining the "Holy Grail" and he sees Parry's hallucination - the red knight. No one knows if he really saw it or if it was just a representation of the barriers and difficulties that Parry had been going through, therefore it did raise some questions in the audience's minds. 

Above: Double Date!Jack and Anne bring 

Parry and Lydia out for dinner. 

Much to Jack and Anne's dismay, 

Lydia is highly uncoordinated and 

does not possess table etiquette whatsoever. 

There is also one other part of his life to set right again - his relationship with his strong-willed and long-suffering girlfriend Anne, who waits on and for him as he goes through life, fickle and undecided. He eventually finally comes to his senses (some guys just take soooo long!)  and makes up-and-(also)out with her in her video store =) 

Above: Jack finally gives in and follows Parry- 

they lie naked in the middle of Central Park. 

A symbol of freedom, perhaps?

Overall, the show was pretty confusing as there were many things going on, and the setting was very different from the typical movie in the sense that there were many "mythical" things going on. Scenes also varied very widely, from Jack being a totally posh, upper class DJ, to times where he was beaten up being mistaken for a bum. However, the message was profound.

One line that struck me was when parry was telling the story of the Fisher King. The story ends with the knight giving the king a drink. Upon drinking, the king realizes that he is drinking from the Holy Grail and asks the knight how he found it, as his search had proved in vain. The knight laughed and answered that he did not know, and he only knew that the king was thirsty.

You never know, a simple kind act can go a long way.

Matthew 25:40

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, 

whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,

 you did for me.'

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101889/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHaZuRo3DZ4