Spoiler Alert!
How does Igby manage to seem pretty well adjusted and resilient at the end of all the abuse and family dysfunction? His (not biological we discover) father ends up in a psychiatric hospital. His mother, Mimi, dislikes him, not entirely without provocation by Igby, and rarely misses an opportunity to compare him unfavorably to his overachieving brother or put him down in other ways.
Mimi has Igby and Oliver euthanize her with "poison" in ice cream, but because of the tolerance she has developed with her drug abuse ("I've been popping Seconal." (1:19)) Oliver must place a plastic bag over her head (0:01, ~1:25) to finish the job.
Igby and two other boys smoke marijuana joints. (0:09)
Igby in a psychotherapy session: He describes how another boy killed himself by jumping (0:16). The psychotherapist hits Igby (0:17).
A physician confronts Mimi about her drug use ("Valium and sleeping pills") while she lies in her hospital bed. She says, "I need my little peppies." and she is told, "You pop speed like candy." (0:18)
Sexual Abuse of Child? Rachel and Igby (0:34); Sookie and Igby.
Sookie rolls a joint, discusses her technique with Igby, smokes. (0:37)
Physical Abuse of Child? Rachel beats Igby (0:43); D. H. (Igby's biological father) beats Igby (1:05).
Rachel overdoses, Igby finds her. (1:03)
Russell smokes a joint, holding it with a hemostat. (1:16)
Igby visits his (not biological) father in a psychiatric hospital. (1:35)
Bereavement | cannabis | joint | overdose | Physical Abuse of Child | psychiatric hospital | psychotherapist | psychotherapy | secobarbital | Sexual Abuse of Child | suicide | tolerance
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Umberto D.
#umbertod
Spoiler Alert!
Aging Umberto faces eviction, has a fever and is alone in the world but for his dog Flike and the young maid Maria, who has problems of her own.
Umberto exaggerates his symptoms to stay in hospital longer (0:41). Even if he is sick, does this constitute malingering? He loses Flike but finds him again (0:56).
Looking depressed Umberto loses interest in food (1:07). He thinks of jumping from his window, but when he sees Flike curled up asleep on his bed he cannot jump. (1:09). Unable to sleep (1:11), Umberto packs and leaves, telling Maria he has left something for her (1:13).
Umberto wants to leave Flike at a kennel but changes his mind (1:17). He tries to give him to a girl, but her parents refuse (1:22). He leaves him with children in a park, but Flike follows and finds him. He holds Flike in his arms standing next to the tracks, but before he can step in front of the train Flike squirms out of his arms and runs away, almost rejecting Umberto, but finally returning to his master to play as before (1:25).
malingering | suicide
Spoiler Alert!
Aging Umberto faces eviction, has a fever and is alone in the world but for his dog Flike and the young maid Maria, who has problems of her own.
Umberto exaggerates his symptoms to stay in hospital longer (0:41). Even if he is sick, does this constitute malingering? He loses Flike but finds him again (0:56).
Looking depressed Umberto loses interest in food (1:07). He thinks of jumping from his window, but when he sees Flike curled up asleep on his bed he cannot jump. (1:09). Unable to sleep (1:11), Umberto packs and leaves, telling Maria he has left something for her (1:13).
Umberto wants to leave Flike at a kennel but changes his mind (1:17). He tries to give him to a girl, but her parents refuse (1:22). He leaves him with children in a park, but Flike follows and finds him. He holds Flike in his arms standing next to the tracks, but before he can step in front of the train Flike squirms out of his arms and runs away, almost rejecting Umberto, but finally returning to his master to play as before (1:25).
malingering | suicide
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Séraphine
No particular diagnosis stands out here, other than possibly Schizoid Personality Disorder. As the story opens we see painter Séraphine Louis already in middle age with no emotional connection to anyone. We soon learn that her religion may drive her obsession with painting. She alludes to having been instructed to do so, apparently by an angel or the Virgin Mary. But only later in the film does she appear frankly delusional. Many devoutly religious people experience a calling, even sometimes reporting a hallucinated voice or vision. Such experiences usually do not imply mental illness.
Séraphine works hard, displays extraordinary independence, talent and cleverness not only in concocting her own pigments but also in dealing with people. There is not contriction of affect.
But as time goes on, and even in the face of success and an apparent friendship with a young woman, we see more evidence of a single delusion motivating her: "They'll come for me, and I'll be saved." (1:41) She dons a wedding gown she had made weeks or months (?) before and walks through Senlis dropping her most valuable possessions in front of homes and knocking on their doors until police take her to a psychiatric hospital. I wondered whether she might have believed she was destined to marry Jesus.
We see Séraphine enter the psychiatric hospital (1:46) and the day room (1:47). Frightened by another patient who awakens her by pulling at her hair nurses restrain her in an isolation room (1:50). She enters Clermont Asylum (1:51), then transfers to a private room with a door that opens to a meadow (1:52).
delusion | mental disorder | psychiatric hospital | restraint | Schizoid Personality Disorder | Séraphine Louis
Séraphine works hard, displays extraordinary independence, talent and cleverness not only in concocting her own pigments but also in dealing with people. There is not contriction of affect.
But as time goes on, and even in the face of success and an apparent friendship with a young woman, we see more evidence of a single delusion motivating her: "They'll come for me, and I'll be saved." (1:41) She dons a wedding gown she had made weeks or months (?) before and walks through Senlis dropping her most valuable possessions in front of homes and knocking on their doors until police take her to a psychiatric hospital. I wondered whether she might have believed she was destined to marry Jesus.
We see Séraphine enter the psychiatric hospital (1:46) and the day room (1:47). Frightened by another patient who awakens her by pulling at her hair nurses restrain her in an isolation room (1:50). She enters Clermont Asylum (1:51), then transfers to a private room with a door that opens to a meadow (1:52).
delusion | mental disorder | psychiatric hospital | restraint | Schizoid Personality Disorder | Séraphine Louis
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Frankenstein
Dr. Frankenstein combines parts from stolen corpses, including the brain of a criminal and brings the monster to life with electricity from lightning. Terms like insane and crazy appear in conversation repeatedly throughout the film, sometimes referring to Dr. Frankenstein himself (0:19).
At a medical lecture the professor shows his audience how to distinguish a normal brain from that of a criminal by its external appearance. (0:07)
We see the monster raving in his cell (0:36).
In order to control the monster the two doctors inject him with a "very strong half grain solution" of a central nervous system depressant, probably a barbiturate (0:37). The professor notes that to maintain the effect he must inject larger doses more frequently, evidence of developing tolerance (0:42).
The monster, as though continuing to mimic her game of throwing flowers into the water, throws Maria into the water (0:50). After she disappears and drowns he appears unhappy, and there is no evidence that he intended to harm her or even that he anticipated the consequences of his action, which her father calls murder. Might he pass the wild beast test to mount a successful insanity defense? Would the fact that he has killed twice before make a difference?
Maria's father brings her body into town (0:55).
Frankenstein says of Elizabeth after the monster as made to attack her, "She just looks at me and says nothing." Traumatic dissociation with mutism? (0:57).
Bereavement | central nervous system depressant | dissociation | mutism | parenteral | tolerance | wild beast test
At a medical lecture the professor shows his audience how to distinguish a normal brain from that of a criminal by its external appearance. (0:07)
We see the monster raving in his cell (0:36).
In order to control the monster the two doctors inject him with a "very strong half grain solution" of a central nervous system depressant, probably a barbiturate (0:37). The professor notes that to maintain the effect he must inject larger doses more frequently, evidence of developing tolerance (0:42).
The monster, as though continuing to mimic her game of throwing flowers into the water, throws Maria into the water (0:50). After she disappears and drowns he appears unhappy, and there is no evidence that he intended to harm her or even that he anticipated the consequences of his action, which her father calls murder. Might he pass the wild beast test to mount a successful insanity defense? Would the fact that he has killed twice before make a difference?
Maria's father brings her body into town (0:55).
Frankenstein says of Elizabeth after the monster as made to attack her, "She just looks at me and says nothing." Traumatic dissociation with mutism? (0:57).
Bereavement | central nervous system depressant | dissociation | mutism | parenteral | tolerance | wild beast test
Friday, March 26, 2010
Behind the Lines
Based on the Pat Barker novel Regeneration
, the film, set during World War I, follows Dr. William Rivers, a psychiatrist, and his treatment of several officers suffering from war neurosis (now called Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh (0:04). The story is based in fact, and most of the characters were real.
Perhaps Rivers' most famous patient, Siegfried "Mad Jack" Sassoon, a published poet and decorated soldier, protests the war when he believes its pursuit has become immoral. Suffering from nightmares but no other signs of "war neurosis," and not really mentally ill, authorities send him to the psychiatric hospital in order to stifle and discredit him (0:05).
A patient scales the fence surrounding the hospital, but encounters another patient huddling, bloodied and agitated, surrounded by the gamekeeper's dead animals and desperately clutching an object, a knife? (0:16)
In the hospital we see patients resting in the day room (0:05), the psychiatrists conducting rounds (0:30).
Officer Prior suffers from mutism and Dissociative Amnesia. We can track his progress during several sessions with Rivers (0:13, 0:33). Rivers and a nurse find Prior trying to scratch his way out through a wall, apparently during a nightmare, the content of which he does not recall the next day (0:18). Would you diagnose REM sleep behavior disorder or Sleepwalking Disorder? Rivers discusses mutism and "stammering" during a session with Prior (0:48). Prior agrees to hypnosis by Rivers in order to help him recall events immediately before he stopped talking (0:52). He recalls in the trenches, after a shell blows up a man in his unit, picking up the man's eyeball from the ground. (0:55)
Sassoon tells Owen that Sassoon's brother Hamo died at Gallipoli
. (0:25)
As the story unfolds we see Rivers may suffer from vicarious traumatization as he listens to stories of horror from the trenches. He tells his own physician he is "getting shell shocked by my patients." He describes a dream in which relives his research with Sir Henry Head, the neurologist. He talks about fatigue (the subject of actual research by the real Dr. Rivers), stress, and powerlessness. (1:03)
While on leave in London Dr. Rivers observes another physician (Lewis Yealland?) "treating" traumatic mutism by applying noxious electrical stimuli to the mouth and larynx of a soldier, effectively torturing him until he resumes normal speech (1:06). Did psychiatrists actually employ this technique? Was it an attempt to root out malingering?
Rivers tells Prior, "Everybody who survives feels guilty" (1:20).
Bereavement | Dissociative Amnesia | flashback | hypnosis | mutism | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | psychotherapy | REM sleep behavior disorder | William Rivers | Siegfried Sassoon | Sleepwalking Disorder | stuttering | survivor guilt | vicarious traumatization | Lewis Yealland
, the film, set during World War I, follows Dr. William Rivers, a psychiatrist, and his treatment of several officers suffering from war neurosis (now called Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh (0:04). The story is based in fact, and most of the characters were real.Perhaps Rivers' most famous patient, Siegfried "Mad Jack" Sassoon, a published poet and decorated soldier, protests the war when he believes its pursuit has become immoral. Suffering from nightmares but no other signs of "war neurosis," and not really mentally ill, authorities send him to the psychiatric hospital in order to stifle and discredit him (0:05).
A patient scales the fence surrounding the hospital, but encounters another patient huddling, bloodied and agitated, surrounded by the gamekeeper's dead animals and desperately clutching an object, a knife? (0:16)
In the hospital we see patients resting in the day room (0:05), the psychiatrists conducting rounds (0:30).
Officer Prior suffers from mutism and Dissociative Amnesia. We can track his progress during several sessions with Rivers (0:13, 0:33). Rivers and a nurse find Prior trying to scratch his way out through a wall, apparently during a nightmare, the content of which he does not recall the next day (0:18). Would you diagnose REM sleep behavior disorder or Sleepwalking Disorder? Rivers discusses mutism and "stammering" during a session with Prior (0:48). Prior agrees to hypnosis by Rivers in order to help him recall events immediately before he stopped talking (0:52). He recalls in the trenches, after a shell blows up a man in his unit, picking up the man's eyeball from the ground. (0:55)
Sassoon tells Owen that Sassoon's brother Hamo died at Gallipoli
. (0:25)As the story unfolds we see Rivers may suffer from vicarious traumatization as he listens to stories of horror from the trenches. He tells his own physician he is "getting shell shocked by my patients." He describes a dream in which relives his research with Sir Henry Head, the neurologist. He talks about fatigue (the subject of actual research by the real Dr. Rivers), stress, and powerlessness. (1:03)
While on leave in London Dr. Rivers observes another physician (Lewis Yealland?) "treating" traumatic mutism by applying noxious electrical stimuli to the mouth and larynx of a soldier, effectively torturing him until he resumes normal speech (1:06). Did psychiatrists actually employ this technique? Was it an attempt to root out malingering?
Rivers tells Prior, "Everybody who survives feels guilty" (1:20).
Bereavement | Dissociative Amnesia | flashback | hypnosis | mutism | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | psychotherapy | REM sleep behavior disorder | William Rivers | Siegfried Sassoon | Sleepwalking Disorder | stuttering | survivor guilt | vicarious traumatization | Lewis Yealland
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Mayerling
Lovers Rudolph and Marie, seeing no future together, tacitly agree that suicide is their only option. Rudolph agrees to implement the plan when Marie is unaware. While she still sleeps he shoots her in the head with a revolver off camera, leaving her with only a trickle of blood on her forehead, then he turns the gun on himself. We see only that he reaches for her hand which then falls limp, ending the film.
suicide
suicide
Monday, March 22, 2010
Pineapple Express
If you need clips of stoners smoking joints this is as good a collection as you are likely to find. Don't look for any kind of serious message, but there is one moment of insight when Dale says, "We are not very functional when we're high." (1:14)
US Army Private Miller smoking a joint containing a substance referred to as "item 9", and becoming intoxicated, apparently as part of a military experiment. (0:01)
Dale smoking a joint and driving. (0:04)
Dale and his dealer Saul examine and discuss a bag of marijuana. (0:12)
Saul shows Dale "cross" joint, and the two share it, coughing (0:13)
Dale lights a joint in his car but drops it on the street (0:21). Ted picks it up, smokes it and identifies the substance as pineapple express (0:23)
Saul smokes a joint (0:26). Mattheson smokes a joint (0:27).
Dale and Saul smoking (0:28); smoking to intoxication outdoors (0:39); smoking together, then smoking with school boys while warning them it is a "gateway" drug (1:03).
Ted invents names for different kinds of marijuana in bags (0:59 ).
Very brief scenes of two men using a hookah (1:01 ).
cannabis | Cannabis Intoxication | joint
US Army Private Miller smoking a joint containing a substance referred to as "item 9", and becoming intoxicated, apparently as part of a military experiment. (0:01)
Dale smoking a joint and driving. (0:04)
Dale and his dealer Saul examine and discuss a bag of marijuana. (0:12)
Saul shows Dale "cross" joint, and the two share it, coughing (0:13)
Dale lights a joint in his car but drops it on the street (0:21). Ted picks it up, smokes it and identifies the substance as pineapple express (0:23)
Saul smokes a joint (0:26). Mattheson smokes a joint (0:27).
Dale and Saul smoking (0:28); smoking to intoxication outdoors (0:39); smoking together, then smoking with school boys while warning them it is a "gateway" drug (1:03).
Ted invents names for different kinds of marijuana in bags (0:59 ).
Very brief scenes of two men using a hookah (1:01 ).
cannabis | Cannabis Intoxication | joint
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Going in Style
Willy can't sleep the night before the robbery, talks about his son who died at age 18 (0:26).
Willy suffers a heart attack and dies (0:43).
Joe finds Al dead in his bed (1:19).
bereavement | Insomnia
Willy suffers a heart attack and dies (0:43).
Joe finds Al dead in his bed (1:19).
bereavement | Insomnia
The Princess and the Frog
With some help from Facilier Lawrence exchanges identities with Prince Naveen. OK, this has nothing do with delusion or other psychopathology, but the visual effect does illustrate intermetamorphosis (0:31, 0:42, 1:16).
intermetamorphosis
intermetamorphosis
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Psycho III
We see some of the same psychopathology repeated in this second sequel to Psycho and Psycho II. This time a reporter discovers that Ms. Spool, the woman Norman murders early in the film and refers to as "mother," was actually his aunt and had murdered Norman's father, presumably when Norman was very young.
Distraught Maureen as a novice nun threatens to jump to her death from a bell tower, but another nun falls to her death as she tries to prevent Maureen from jumping (0:01).
Reporter Tracy interviews Norman for an article about the insanity defense (0:19).
After stuffing her body using his skills as a taxidermist Norman converses with Ms. Spool. It appears that rather than hallucinating her voice he takes on her identity, even talking in her voice almost every time either her stuffed body appears or Norman appears dressed as "Mother" (0:25, 0:43, 0:58, 1:25)
Maureen re-experiences the death of the nun for which she now blames herself (0:27).
Watching Maureen through a concealed hole in the wall of her hotel room Norman sees her naked, but when he approaches her dressed like "mother" and wielding his knife he sees that she has already lacerated both wrists with a razor in a suicide attempt and rescues her. From Maureen's perspective we see a vision of the Virgin Mary holding a cross instead of Norman holding his knife (0:30). Should we classify this as a religious vision, probably a normal phenomenon, or as a hallucination, perhaps related to her mental state as she tries to take her life, or even related to blood loss and resulting delirium?
Maureen meets with her "resident" psychiatrist Father Brian at what might be a Catholic psychiatric hospital (0:33, 1:15). In what might be a psychotherapy session he tells her, "Suicide is a sin" (0:44).
Intensely ambivalent about Maureen Norman impulsively but intentionally cuts his fingers (0:59).
Norman's differential diagnosis: Dissociative Identity Disorder vs. Psychotic Disorder vs intermetamorphosis or other misidentification syndrome
Do Norman's murders qualify as resulting from a repetition compulsion?
ambivalence | Dissociative Identity Disorder | flashback | intermetamorphosis | misidentification syndromes | psychiatrist | repetition compulsion | self mutilation | suicide | Voyeurism
Distraught Maureen as a novice nun threatens to jump to her death from a bell tower, but another nun falls to her death as she tries to prevent Maureen from jumping (0:01).
Reporter Tracy interviews Norman for an article about the insanity defense (0:19).
After stuffing her body using his skills as a taxidermist Norman converses with Ms. Spool. It appears that rather than hallucinating her voice he takes on her identity, even talking in her voice almost every time either her stuffed body appears or Norman appears dressed as "Mother" (0:25, 0:43, 0:58, 1:25)
Maureen re-experiences the death of the nun for which she now blames herself (0:27).
Watching Maureen through a concealed hole in the wall of her hotel room Norman sees her naked, but when he approaches her dressed like "mother" and wielding his knife he sees that she has already lacerated both wrists with a razor in a suicide attempt and rescues her. From Maureen's perspective we see a vision of the Virgin Mary holding a cross instead of Norman holding his knife (0:30). Should we classify this as a religious vision, probably a normal phenomenon, or as a hallucination, perhaps related to her mental state as she tries to take her life, or even related to blood loss and resulting delirium?
Maureen meets with her "resident" psychiatrist Father Brian at what might be a Catholic psychiatric hospital (0:33, 1:15). In what might be a psychotherapy session he tells her, "Suicide is a sin" (0:44).
Intensely ambivalent about Maureen Norman impulsively but intentionally cuts his fingers (0:59).
Norman's differential diagnosis: Dissociative Identity Disorder vs. Psychotic Disorder vs intermetamorphosis or other misidentification syndrome
Do Norman's murders qualify as resulting from a repetition compulsion?
ambivalence | Dissociative Identity Disorder | flashback | intermetamorphosis | misidentification syndromes | psychiatrist | repetition compulsion | self mutilation | suicide | Voyeurism
Friday, March 19, 2010
Lost in America
David's behavior suggests mania (0:21).
Linda runs through the entire "nest egg" in one night of Pathological Gambling (0:39).
mania | Pathological Gambling
Linda runs through the entire "nest egg" in one night of Pathological Gambling (0:39).
mania | Pathological Gambling
Thursday, March 18, 2010
A Farewell to Arms
Spoiler alert!
Catherine displays and describes fear of rain (ombrophobia or pluviophobia) which she associates with death (0:21, 0:58).
Major Rinaldi, a surgeon, having been forced to abandon his patients and believing they face certain death, deliberately labels himself a coward, knowing that the tribunal will order his summary execution by firing squad (1:39).
Frederick loses both his newborn son and Catherine.
bereavement | phobia | suicide
Catherine displays and describes fear of rain (ombrophobia or pluviophobia) which she associates with death (0:21, 0:58).
Major Rinaldi, a surgeon, having been forced to abandon his patients and believing they face certain death, deliberately labels himself a coward, knowing that the tribunal will order his summary execution by firing squad (1:39).
Frederick loses both his newborn son and Catherine.
bereavement | phobia | suicide
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Russian Dolls
Snorting lines of cocaine on mirror (0:42).
Xavier cross-dressed complete with make up (0:43).
cocaine | cross-dressing
Xavier cross-dressed complete with make up (0:43).
cocaine | cross-dressing
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Caveman's Valentine
On the surface this film seems to accurately depict many aspects of the life and psychopathology of an untreated homeless musical genius who suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. But do you believe a man with this illness could organize an effective effort to solve a crime, motivated by caring for his friends on the street and a wish to redeem himself with his daughter? Would a patient with schizophrenia likely experience as many visual (versus auditory) hallucinations as does Romulus?
Romulus (the caveman) raves at his perceived persecutors in the street (0:02). He harbors a delusion that his primary persecutor, Stuyvesant, operates from the Chrysler Building which often looms in the background, occasionally emitting light (0:05, 0:13, 0:33, 0:34, 0:44, 0:49). Distorted sounds and images suggestive of old black and white television broadcasts illustrate his sensory distortions or hallucinations (0:17).
Romulus hallucinates images on a broken and disconnected television in his cave (0:08).
Romulus grieves the loss of his friend from the street, Scottie, after discovering his frozen body in a tree outside his cave. Believing photographer Leppenraub has murdered him, Romulus incorporates him in his delusion as controlled by Stuyvesant (0:17).
Romulus' emotions sometimes appear to precipitate his hallucinations, as when he plays a piano (0:29). He hallucinates his wife (0:37, 0:59).
A sample of Romulus' delusional talk (0:56). During an emotional moment with Lulu he rocks autisticly (1:06). A sample of his peculiar gate (1:27).
Moira asks Romulus, "You're psychotic, aren't you?" He answers, "I have brain typhoons." (0:49)
bereavement | delusion | hallucination | Paranoid Schizophrenia | persecutory delusion | psychosis
Romulus (the caveman) raves at his perceived persecutors in the street (0:02). He harbors a delusion that his primary persecutor, Stuyvesant, operates from the Chrysler Building which often looms in the background, occasionally emitting light (0:05, 0:13, 0:33, 0:34, 0:44, 0:49). Distorted sounds and images suggestive of old black and white television broadcasts illustrate his sensory distortions or hallucinations (0:17).
Romulus hallucinates images on a broken and disconnected television in his cave (0:08).
Romulus grieves the loss of his friend from the street, Scottie, after discovering his frozen body in a tree outside his cave. Believing photographer Leppenraub has murdered him, Romulus incorporates him in his delusion as controlled by Stuyvesant (0:17).
Romulus' emotions sometimes appear to precipitate his hallucinations, as when he plays a piano (0:29). He hallucinates his wife (0:37, 0:59).
A sample of Romulus' delusional talk (0:56). During an emotional moment with Lulu he rocks autisticly (1:06). A sample of his peculiar gate (1:27).
Moira asks Romulus, "You're psychotic, aren't you?" He answers, "I have brain typhoons." (0:49)
bereavement | delusion | hallucination | Paranoid Schizophrenia | persecutory delusion | psychosis
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Spoiler alert!
Three generations of women trace the fallout of prescription psycho-stimulant abuse.
Pippa Lee describes how her mother's pills seem leave her with boundless energy or little at all (0:11).
Pippa's brother Chester tells Pippa about Suky, their mother, "She's taking Dexedrine -- speed." Pippa reads the label on her prescription bottle. Suky tells Pippa she "would get fat" without the pills (0:19).
According to Pippa Suky's "cold turkey lasted exactly one week," and because of the effect of her stimulant use on her behavior she "never knew who she was going to be from one minute to the next." In desperation over her mother's behavior Pippa takes several capsules herself. At one point in the conversation Suky seems to welcome Pippa's use of the drug, perhaps because she believes Pippa might stop criticizing her for using, but conflict quickly resumes (0:21).
After a series of discoveries of unexplained messes in the kitchen Herb and Pippa set up a video recorder. To her horror Pippa discovers that she has been eating while still asleep, apparently during episodes of somnambulism, (0:25). She wonders whether she might be "having a very quiet nervous breakdown (0:38). Pippa dreams she holds a long leash attached to a lion then awakens while making a purchase at a convenience store (0:39). Her eating and driving while asleep suggest effects we associate with hypnotic drugs like zolpidem. Pippa tells Herb she consulted a psychiatrist (0:56).
A bowl of hundreds of multicolored capsules illustrates Pippa's escalating drug use (0:49).
Pippa utilizes a multigenerational perspective in observing how processes can "swing back and forth from generation to generation" to explain how her attempt to raise her daughter Grace differently from the way in which her mother raised Pippa may have gone awry, leaving Grace very distant from her (0:57).
When Herb says, "She died for nothing." we don't know to whom he refers. He tells Pippa, "Maybe you should be taking antidepressants." (1:00). Herb's wife Gigi, having discovered his affair with young Pippa, organizes a lunch to formalize the divorce, but takes a pistol from a box and pulls the trigger with it in her mouth (1:09). The shooting scene runs briefly again (1:14).
Herb tells Pippa of Gigi, "If I have to live with that lunatic for another week I'll kill myself (1:06).
After Pippa catches Herb with her friend Sandra Sandra cuts her forearms with a razor (1:13). After an apparent stroke or heart attack has left Herb in a vegetative state, Sandra, now apparently a patient at the same hospital, offers Pippa, "I'll jump out the window." (1:18)
Bereavement | dextroamphetamine | multigenerational perspective | multigenerational transmission | psycho-stimulant | self mutilation | Sleepwalking Disorder | Substance Abuse | suicide
Three generations of women trace the fallout of prescription psycho-stimulant abuse.
Pippa Lee describes how her mother's pills seem leave her with boundless energy or little at all (0:11).
Pippa's brother Chester tells Pippa about Suky, their mother, "She's taking Dexedrine -- speed." Pippa reads the label on her prescription bottle. Suky tells Pippa she "would get fat" without the pills (0:19).
According to Pippa Suky's "cold turkey lasted exactly one week," and because of the effect of her stimulant use on her behavior she "never knew who she was going to be from one minute to the next." In desperation over her mother's behavior Pippa takes several capsules herself. At one point in the conversation Suky seems to welcome Pippa's use of the drug, perhaps because she believes Pippa might stop criticizing her for using, but conflict quickly resumes (0:21).
After a series of discoveries of unexplained messes in the kitchen Herb and Pippa set up a video recorder. To her horror Pippa discovers that she has been eating while still asleep, apparently during episodes of somnambulism, (0:25). She wonders whether she might be "having a very quiet nervous breakdown (0:38). Pippa dreams she holds a long leash attached to a lion then awakens while making a purchase at a convenience store (0:39). Her eating and driving while asleep suggest effects we associate with hypnotic drugs like zolpidem. Pippa tells Herb she consulted a psychiatrist (0:56).
A bowl of hundreds of multicolored capsules illustrates Pippa's escalating drug use (0:49).
Pippa utilizes a multigenerational perspective in observing how processes can "swing back and forth from generation to generation" to explain how her attempt to raise her daughter Grace differently from the way in which her mother raised Pippa may have gone awry, leaving Grace very distant from her (0:57).
When Herb says, "She died for nothing." we don't know to whom he refers. He tells Pippa, "Maybe you should be taking antidepressants." (1:00). Herb's wife Gigi, having discovered his affair with young Pippa, organizes a lunch to formalize the divorce, but takes a pistol from a box and pulls the trigger with it in her mouth (1:09). The shooting scene runs briefly again (1:14).
Herb tells Pippa of Gigi, "If I have to live with that lunatic for another week I'll kill myself (1:06).
After Pippa catches Herb with her friend Sandra Sandra cuts her forearms with a razor (1:13). After an apparent stroke or heart attack has left Herb in a vegetative state, Sandra, now apparently a patient at the same hospital, offers Pippa, "I'll jump out the window." (1:18)
Bereavement | dextroamphetamine | multigenerational perspective | multigenerational transmission | psycho-stimulant | self mutilation | Sleepwalking Disorder | Substance Abuse | suicide
Friday, March 12, 2010
Aurevoir Les Enfants
Quentin awakens twice to discover he has wet his bed (0:23, 1:18). He describes the experience to Bonnet (1:19).
Enuresis
Enuresis
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Pumpkin
When Carolyn meets Pumpkin (0:13) he touches her heart despite a disability suggestive of cerebral palsy, but also apparently misdiagnosed as including mental retardation. We see his dysfluent or apraxic speech in his first attempt to pronounce her name (0:14).
Carolyn meets with "Dr. Cruz," a hack college counselor who runs through a perfunctory checklist of symptoms and disorders before rushing her out of his office with some inane advice (0:50). She tells Cruz, "He's mentally retarded."
Carolyn's roommate Jenine tells her how a "therapist... put me on medication... how much it helps" (1:02).
Carolyn tries to kill herself by ingesting everything she can find in her medicine cabinet, but only succeeds in making herself sick (1:17).
Pumpkin tells his mother (correctly), "I'm not retarded" (1:25).
apraxia | counselor | dysfluency | Mental Retardation | overdose | suicide
Carolyn meets with "Dr. Cruz," a hack college counselor who runs through a perfunctory checklist of symptoms and disorders before rushing her out of his office with some inane advice (0:50). She tells Cruz, "He's mentally retarded."
Carolyn's roommate Jenine tells her how a "therapist... put me on medication... how much it helps" (1:02).
Carolyn tries to kill herself by ingesting everything she can find in her medicine cabinet, but only succeeds in making herself sick (1:17).
Pumpkin tells his mother (correctly), "I'm not retarded" (1:25).
apraxia | counselor | dysfluency | Mental Retardation | overdose | suicide
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Shampoo
George: "Got to give her some pills -- Percodan -- she ran out" (0:04).
George helps Jill with her panic attack by having her breathe into a paper bag (0:06).
Marijuana: joints (1:12, 1:17, 1:23), bong (1:17).
cannabis | joint | oxycodone | Panic Attack
George helps Jill with her panic attack by having her breathe into a paper bag (0:06).
Marijuana: joints (1:12, 1:17, 1:23), bong (1:17).
cannabis | joint | oxycodone | Panic Attack
Monday, March 8, 2010
Pusher III - I'm the Angel of Death
Family figures less prominently than in Pusher II.
Meeting of Narcotics Anonymous (0:00). At another NA meeting (0:20) Milo talks about temptations to relapse (0:21); the 12 Traditions are mentioned; and the group joins hands to repeat the Serenity Prayer (0:22).
Pills identified as ecstasy are found in the air filter of a van motor (0:05).
Milo turns down cocaine but accepts a small packet of heroin (0:37) which he loads into a cigarette and smokes (0:40). He smokes heroin again (0:52, 1:07).
Milo snorts what he believes to be lines of cocaine on a mirror with a straw only to discover it is really amphetamine, then smokes heroin again after another man (1:10).
3, 4 methylene dioxymethamphetamine | amphetamine | cocaine | heroin | meeting | Narcotics Anonymous | Serenity Prayer
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Mask
#maskmovie
Spoiler Alert!
Marijuana joints: A biker/dealer offers Rusty (Rocky's mom) one that is "dusted with angel weed" (0:15). No "weed" contains phencyclidine (angel dust), but what else could he have meant? Does "angel weed" mean "angel" dust (PCP) added to cannabis (weed)? Rusty smokes a joint (0:36)
Rocky grabs a stack of pamphlets describing a "chemical dependency" program to take to Rusty (0:26).
Rusty snorts powder, presumably cocaine, poured from a small vile onto her hand (0:27).
Rocky confronts his mom about her drug use, "I don't want you taking drugs" (0:34). Rocky expresses worry about Rusty's drug use (0:40).
Rusty refuses drugs offered by a dealer (0:43). Rusty buys drugs from dealer (0:55).
Rocky has explained to a friend that Dozer does not like to talk, but after attending Rocky's graduation ceremony he tells Rocky with enormous effort that he is proud of him. Might this be a case of silent block in stuttering (1:09)?
With the arrival of Rusty's parents (1:12) we get a glimpse of family emotional process across three generations. Rusty's father cannot conceal his disappointment in her or restrain himself from criticizing her. She remains reactive to his disappointment. Rocky tries to intervene (1:17) by hiding evidence of her drug use, but her father can easily sense her intoxication. Rocky suggests she has used "smack and ludes."
We see relationship triangles: Rusty's relationship with her dad is intense and conflicted, while her relationship with her mom is less clear, but may be distant. Neither do we know much about Rusty's parents' marriage. We see little evidence of dysfunction in Rocky's relationships with his grandparents, but he sometimes assumes a parent role with his mother. Might this represent a perverse triangle? How can we explain how functional and mature Rocky seems, except perhaps near the end, after growing up with so much dysfunction? What role might the Turks have played, providing multiple parent figures and diffusing a potentially fused relationship with his mother? Assuming Rusty were to enter addiction treatment how might a family psychotherapist approach this case? Could he help Rusty's father stop pursuing Rusty with criticism? Could he help Rusty accept her father's disappointment in her?
After the confrontation with her father Rusty ingests some unidentified pills, then pushes Gar away emotionally by intentionally hurting him (1:15).
Rusty tells her son she is clean (1:37).
When Rusty discovers that Rocky has died during the night we see a sign on the wall of his bedroom: "Why be normal?" (1:58)
Not only does everyone who knew him mourn Rocky's death, but Rocky and the rest of the Turks mourn the death of Red.
abstinence | Bereavement | cannabis | cocaine | confrontation | emotional process | joint | methaqualone | multigenerational transmission | silent block | Stuttering | Substance Abuse | triangulation
Spoiler Alert!
Marijuana joints: A biker/dealer offers Rusty (Rocky's mom) one that is "dusted with angel weed" (0:15). No "weed" contains phencyclidine (angel dust), but what else could he have meant? Does "angel weed" mean "angel" dust (PCP) added to cannabis (weed)? Rusty smokes a joint (0:36)
Rocky grabs a stack of pamphlets describing a "chemical dependency" program to take to Rusty (0:26).
Rusty snorts powder, presumably cocaine, poured from a small vile onto her hand (0:27).
Rocky confronts his mom about her drug use, "I don't want you taking drugs" (0:34). Rocky expresses worry about Rusty's drug use (0:40).
Rusty refuses drugs offered by a dealer (0:43). Rusty buys drugs from dealer (0:55).
Rocky has explained to a friend that Dozer does not like to talk, but after attending Rocky's graduation ceremony he tells Rocky with enormous effort that he is proud of him. Might this be a case of silent block in stuttering (1:09)?
With the arrival of Rusty's parents (1:12) we get a glimpse of family emotional process across three generations. Rusty's father cannot conceal his disappointment in her or restrain himself from criticizing her. She remains reactive to his disappointment. Rocky tries to intervene (1:17) by hiding evidence of her drug use, but her father can easily sense her intoxication. Rocky suggests she has used "smack and ludes."
We see relationship triangles: Rusty's relationship with her dad is intense and conflicted, while her relationship with her mom is less clear, but may be distant. Neither do we know much about Rusty's parents' marriage. We see little evidence of dysfunction in Rocky's relationships with his grandparents, but he sometimes assumes a parent role with his mother. Might this represent a perverse triangle? How can we explain how functional and mature Rocky seems, except perhaps near the end, after growing up with so much dysfunction? What role might the Turks have played, providing multiple parent figures and diffusing a potentially fused relationship with his mother? Assuming Rusty were to enter addiction treatment how might a family psychotherapist approach this case? Could he help Rusty's father stop pursuing Rusty with criticism? Could he help Rusty accept her father's disappointment in her?
After the confrontation with her father Rusty ingests some unidentified pills, then pushes Gar away emotionally by intentionally hurting him (1:15).
Rusty tells her son she is clean (1:37).
When Rusty discovers that Rocky has died during the night we see a sign on the wall of his bedroom: "Why be normal?" (1:58)
Not only does everyone who knew him mourn Rocky's death, but Rocky and the rest of the Turks mourn the death of Red.
abstinence | Bereavement | cannabis | cocaine | confrontation | emotional process | joint | methaqualone | multigenerational transmission | silent block | Stuttering | Substance Abuse | triangulation
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Fitzcarraldo
A character in an opera (Which one?) production stabs himself with a short sword, sings for awhile, then dies (0:07).
Natives of the Amazon rain forest offer Fitzcarraldo a bowl of a milky liquid whose ingredients include yucca and saliva (1:07), but he only takes a sip, and we see no other evidence of intoxication. During a celebration the entire tribe seems to drink that or a similar appearing liquid to become intoxicated (2:17). What substance might this be?
Intoxication | suicide
Natives of the Amazon rain forest offer Fitzcarraldo a bowl of a milky liquid whose ingredients include yucca and saliva (1:07), but he only takes a sip, and we see no other evidence of intoxication. During a celebration the entire tribe seems to drink that or a similar appearing liquid to become intoxicated (2:17). What substance might this be?
Intoxication | suicide
Friday, March 5, 2010
Foreign Correspondent
Jones finds kidnapped Van Meer intoxicated and confused (0:35). His captors inject him with more of the unspecified drug, probably a sedative (0:39).
Fisher, facing arrest and shame, removes his life vest and slides off the floating wing into the ocean and certain drowning, sacrificing his life in the hope that his daughter will survive and confidant the Jones will take care of her (1:52).
sedative | Sedative, Hypnotic, or Anxiolytic Intoxication | suicide
Fisher, facing arrest and shame, removes his life vest and slides off the floating wing into the ocean and certain drowning, sacrificing his life in the hope that his daughter will survive and confidant the Jones will take care of her (1:52).
sedative | Sedative, Hypnotic, or Anxiolytic Intoxication | suicide
Thursday, March 4, 2010
National Lampoon's Vacation
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Into The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport
The vast majority of the parents of the 10,000 Jewish children taken in by English families in 1938 and 1939 perished in the Holocaust.
Bereavement
Bereavement
Monday, March 1, 2010
Elling
Police find Elling, who looks to me a little older than the 40 years suggested, hiding in a closet after the death of his mother (0:01). After spending two years in a psychiatric hospital where he shares a room with younger appearing Kjell, the two travel to Oslo (0:04) where they share an apartment provided by the state under the limited supervision of social worker Frank.
In a very brief scene Elling walks out of group psychotherapy (0:01).
Elling appears to exhibit concrete thinking when a ticket agent asks whether he wants a one way ticket to Oslo and he asks how many ways there might be (0:05).
As he ventures away from the safety of his new apartment for the first time Elling talks about the "dizziness and anxiety" (0:10) that have dogged him all his life.
Elling tells of the death of his father 2 weeks before he was born (0:12).
Attempting to manipulate Elling with a threat of suicide Kjell tells him, "If you don't like it I'll kill myself" (0:29).
At their first meeting Alfons tells Elling, "Madness is poetry's most important source." (0:50)
Differential diagnosis:
Elling: Even judged solely by his storytelling and poetic abilities his intelligence appears to fall above normal, ruling out Mental Retardation. His anxiety away from home suggests agoraphobia, and social anxiety interferes with forming new relationships, but both problems seem to resolve without treatment. An autism spectrum disorder such as Asperger's seems more likely, possibly explaining his awkwardness in relating even to his friend Kjell. Might his anxiety symptoms have resulted only from the fact that his mother kept him isolated until her death?
Kjell: Less inhibited in general than Elling, his difficulty in relating to women despite his prodigious drive to do so frustrate this gentle giant. Perhaps not quite as intelligent as Elling he nonetheless demonstrates aptitude as an automobile mechanic and craftsman. Again I would favor Asperger's, perhaps a milder case than Elling's.
Sadly, I cannot find the sequels, Mors Elling (2003), and Elsk Meg I Morgen (2005), on NetFlix, but you can purchase the trilogy at Amazon.
Agoraphobia | anxiety | Asperger's Disorder | Autistic Disorder | concrete thinking | group psychotherapy | psychiatric hospital | Social Phobia | suicide
In a very brief scene Elling walks out of group psychotherapy (0:01).
Elling appears to exhibit concrete thinking when a ticket agent asks whether he wants a one way ticket to Oslo and he asks how many ways there might be (0:05).
As he ventures away from the safety of his new apartment for the first time Elling talks about the "dizziness and anxiety" (0:10) that have dogged him all his life.
Elling tells of the death of his father 2 weeks before he was born (0:12).
Attempting to manipulate Elling with a threat of suicide Kjell tells him, "If you don't like it I'll kill myself" (0:29).
At their first meeting Alfons tells Elling, "Madness is poetry's most important source." (0:50)
Differential diagnosis:
Elling: Even judged solely by his storytelling and poetic abilities his intelligence appears to fall above normal, ruling out Mental Retardation. His anxiety away from home suggests agoraphobia, and social anxiety interferes with forming new relationships, but both problems seem to resolve without treatment. An autism spectrum disorder such as Asperger's seems more likely, possibly explaining his awkwardness in relating even to his friend Kjell. Might his anxiety symptoms have resulted only from the fact that his mother kept him isolated until her death?
Kjell: Less inhibited in general than Elling, his difficulty in relating to women despite his prodigious drive to do so frustrate this gentle giant. Perhaps not quite as intelligent as Elling he nonetheless demonstrates aptitude as an automobile mechanic and craftsman. Again I would favor Asperger's, perhaps a milder case than Elling's.
Sadly, I cannot find the sequels, Mors Elling (2003), and Elsk Meg I Morgen (2005), on NetFlix, but you can purchase the trilogy at Amazon.
Agoraphobia | anxiety | Asperger's Disorder | Autistic Disorder | concrete thinking | group psychotherapy | psychiatric hospital | Social Phobia | suicide
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