Film “Gothika” Essay

In the 2003 necessitate Gothika Halle cull plays a psychiatrist who loses her memory and wakes up in an insane asylum, the alike(p) one where she had previously been a staff physician. She is confused, disoriented and has lost time. Pete, a psychiatrist played by Robert Downey Jr. , is the doctor assigned to her misgiving and Doug, her economize, had been the doctor in charge of the facility. Miranda, Berrys character, eventually learns that her keep up has been killed and that she has been arrested and charged with his murder (Kassovitz, 2003).From the very beginning, the movie pretends to psychology right. But unfortunately, it is mostly just pretending. The first problem in the movie occurs with the description of Mirandas insane break and the actions leading to it. The doctors motorcaring for Miranda argue that her psychic sickness resulted from her accident, non the other way around. At first, they simply explain her complaint as a traumatic amnesia brought on by th e annoyance of murdering her husband. Or, they allege, the amnesia might be related to the head injury from the car accident and unrelated to her psychological condition.Her doctor also asks her ab divulge drugs that she whitethorn have taken to cause the violence (killing her husband) or her amnesia. spell it is allow for to be concerned about a drug-related cause for amnesia (Merck, 2007) it is illogical to believe that those involved in her treatment would not have conducted split tests to detect drug use prior to the questioning. The movie tells us Miranda has been out of touch with her mind for three days when she awakens in the asylum, so the continent idea that they would not have conducted blood tests and have the results back by past seems implausible.The next major mistake the movie makes in its characterisation of Mirandas mental illness and treatment is that Pete is assigned to do her evaluation. While it can be argued that in some aras he might be the only doc tor available, as one is dead and another incriminate of the murder, the humbug came before the reality of treatment standards in the movie. It seems as though Berrys character may even recognize this as she tries to get a handle on her relationship with Pete, asking him if they had an liaison or wanted to have one (Kassovitz, 2003).This immediately calls into question the ethical motive of the doctor and the accuracy of any judgment he makes regarding her condition. The movie then tries to confuse the viewer with the question of whether Miranda is suffering some sort of psychotic break ro is truly being haunted by ghosts. From a diagnostic perspective, Mirandas symptoms include the fugue when she was carryted, her loss of memory, and eventually, though she is loathe to admit this to her doctor, seeing and hearing her ghost. (Kassovitz, 2003).The film even goes so furthermost as to have Miranda address her hallucination, saying I am a rational somebody. I believe in science. I dont believe in the paranormal, and I dont believe in ghosts. But if you are the ghost of Rachel Parsons, can you let me out of this cadre? (Kassovitz, 2003). The professionals, upon hearing her tale of seeing ghosts, move right from a diagnosis of traumatic amnesia to a diagnosis of schizophrenia, skipping right part neurotic. This is not accurate in the least. First, there is Mirandas statement regarding her interaction with the ghost.She is good-tempered logical exuberant to know that interaction with a ghost is absurd and generally accepted as a mental dysfunction. Schizophrenia is characterized by psychosis (loss of contact with reality), hallucinations ( delusive perceptions), delusions ( nonsensical opinions), disorganized speech and behavior, flattened affect (restricted range of emotions), cognitive deficits (impaired reasoning and problem solving), and occupational and social dysfunction. (Merck, 2007) If she were schizophrenic, it is unlikely that she would ha ve retained her logical mind enough to realize that she was being illogical.The fact that her better mind could still identify her behaviors as irrational is one of the clearest indicators that she was not suffering from the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. Next, there is the appearance of the ghost herself. If Mirandas delusions had been particular to fleeting images or auditory hallucinations, her symptoms would have been consistent with schizophrenia. However, the presence of an acknowledgeable visual hallucination makes the illness more in line with the symptoms of delusional disorders than schizophrenia (Allpsych, 2007).A delusion is a persuasion that is clearly false and that indicates an abnormality in the affected persons content of thought. The false belief is not accounted for by the persons cultural or religious background or his or her level of intelligence. The key bluster of a delusion is the degree to which the person is convinced that the belie f is true. A person with a delusion will hold firmly to the belief regardless of evidence to the contrary. Delusions can be difficult to distinguish from overvalued ideas, which are unreasonable ideas that a person holds, but the affected person has at least some level of doubt as to its lawfulness.A person with a delusion is absolutely convinced that the delusion is real. (Mind Disorders, 2007). The simple truth is that if Miranda had been suffering from either of these mental disorders, her symptoms would have 1) been more extreme in the case of schizophrenia or 2) come with a total belief in her delusion. She would no longer question whether ghosts were real. The final implied diagnosis of the film is that Miranda has been suffering abuse at the hands of a sadistic and manipulative serial killer who also happens to be her husband.Once the ghost leads Miranda to her husbands torture and abuse chamber, the viewer is left with the impression that Mirandas mental illness including the delusion of seeing the ghost was her minds way of dealing with the threat from her husband and becoming strong enough to deal with his abuse. This is complete and utter Hollywood tripe. While it is possible for batter woman to lose control and kill her husband in a situation where she fears for her life, Mirandas symptoms are completely out of sync with the veritable(prenominal) description of BWS (McElroy, 2002).Most likely, this was an attempt by the writer to draw sympathy for the character that did, in fact, kill her husband. If the movie had intended to portray mental illness in an appropriate fashion, it simply would have to stop with the diaphanous ghost story. The problem was that the writer wanted to create a story in which a ghost was used to explain aside mental illness or a mental illness was sued to explain away an encounter with the supernatural. Either way, they failed. By showing the viewer the ghost, the viewer does not question Mirandas sanity.After all, w eve seen it too. To be more in seam with the diagnosis they were most likely going for, schizophrenia, the movie should have relied on an unseen presence and given perfectly reasonable explanations for things that happen, i. e. show Pete going her cell unlocked so that she an escape and conduct her investigation. As it is, the film fails as a ghost story and fails as a psychological thriller. Had it been done properly, it could have succeeded at both.WORKS CITEDDelusions <http//www. minddisorders. com/Br-Del/Delusions. html>, November 18, 2007. Kassovitz, Mathieu (Director) and Sebastian Guitierrez (Writer). Gothika. USAcapital of South Carolina Pictures, 2003. McElroy, Wendy. Battered Womens Syndrome Science or Sham? The Independent Institute, October 28, 2002< http//www. independent. org/aboutus/person_detail. asp? id=488> November 18, 2007. Prognosis and Treatment, <http//www. merck. com/mmpe/index. html> November 19, 2007. Psychotic Disorders , < http//allpsych . com/disorders/psychotic/index. html>, November 18, 2007.