Psychology 38 Clinical Psychology Fall 2011 Assignment 1 Date Due: Tuesday 104/11 This assignment asks you to think

about abnormal psychology as it is portrayed in popular culture and evaluate that portrayal in light of information within your text, as well as other course readings. There are many popular portrayals of mental illness in film. Choose one of the following films. Then write an approximately 5-page essay addressing the following questions. Dont just say what you are thinking but how did you come to what you think? What evidence? What possibilities did you discard? The care of you observation and the evidence is the most important.

(a) How would you describe the chief difficulties experienced by the main character? What
disorder, if any, do you think is being portrayed? Look up potential diagnoses in your text to help you make that decision and please describe the evidence on which youre relying and the rationale for your conclusions (or your ongoing questions.) How realistic was the films depiction of the disorder? [Note: Sometimes the disorder is labeled erroneously within the film. Check it out and think critically about the evidence. If the person portrayed was real you may also want to compare the illness as portrayed and actually experienced.] Did the dramatic portrayal teach you anything beyond what you read? Did it make you think or feel differently about what it might be like to live with that disorder? If it was not realistic, why might it have deviated from real life and what do you think about the portrayal? Did the person experiencing illness receive any care from a mental health professional? What type of treatment did they receive and how fully did it address their difficulties? If they did not receive treatment, what enabled them to get better (if they did)? Can you relate those experiences to any treatment models? Think about the readings from the first weeks of the semester on the meanings and construction of illness and diagnosis. Can you relate ideas from any of them to your understanding of the film? For example, if you think of Kleinmans meanings of illness, how fully did the treating professionals understand them? What about significant others? How did illness meanings differ for patient and doctor or patient and significant others? What did the film you chose portray about stigma or illness behavior, or the role of social context?

(b)

(c)

List of Popular Films: A Beautiful Mind As Good As It Gets Girl, Interrupted Iris Ordinary People One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Lars and the Real Girl Good Will Hunting Regeneration (WWI drama, in US as Behind the Lines) Shine David and Lisa Antwone Fisher Boys Dont Cry