MOVIE ANALYSIS

The Silver Lining Playbook

Christian Casarez

School of Nursing ACU

NURS 431.01: Mental Health Nursing

Stafford

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November 8, 2020

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 MOVIE ANALYSIS
2

Portrayal

In the movie The Silver Lining Playbook, the main character has a mental illness. The

character who plays Pat has a diagnosed illness of bipolar. With Pat’s bipolar he has some signs

shown such as has racing thoughts that you can see him struggle with. He is often irritable and

agitated often. He has a few dramatic scenes where he acts out in anger one moment where he

physically harmed a man and another scene where he throws objects in his room and breaks a

window. He can also be seen as not holding back and being brutally honest. These are all

examples and signs of bipolar that I have studied and would believe to be a true diagnosis from

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this evidence. I liked how the film was not solely focused on the negative of this disability. There

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were moments where he was ‘normal’, enjoying life with his family and friends and there were

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no outbursts of anger. I believe that this is important because it shows that there can be peaceful
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moments or it can be controlled with proper care and treatment.
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Treatment
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In the movie Pat was given medication to take daily. However, there were days that he

did not take his medication and that was very noticeable when he didn’t. His reasoning for not
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taking the medication was he didn’t like the way it made him feel. He was also speaking with a

counselor weekly to help with his outburst of anger and the want to physically harm people when
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he gets frustrated. It was also recommended that he went to small social gatherings with other
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people similar to his diagnosis, however that is not something he enjoyed or did regularly. He

also lived with his parents at the peak of his diagnosis, which helped him stay on a schedule and
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have a support system. I believe that the treatment in this movie was appropriate and very

helpful. He was not abandoned or left to figure this out on his own. He was given medication,

therapeutic communication and a support system.

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 MOVIE ANALYSIS
3

Attitude

In this movie one of the major issues Pat was faced with was his wife was cheating on

him and felt as if she could not handle him and his disorder any longer. She felt as if was always

angry and violent, especially after Pat beat up the man that she was cheating with. Over the film

Pat was constantly trying to fight back for his marriage, but she was never interested in trying

again until she noticed he stopped focusing on her. Once Pat was getting better on his own

without her and was learning to control his anger, now she wanted to hear his side of the story

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and work on the marriage. What she did not realize was that Pat only got physical or angry when

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he was fighting for what he thought was right. He beat up that man that was cheating with his

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wife, and he also got into a physical alteration with some men at a football game that were
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bullying and being racist to another man. Pat did not fight for the pleasure of just fighting, he

fought because this was the only way he thought that he could fix what was right. His ex wife
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finally saw this in Pat at the end of the film but by that time he found someone else that
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understood him and helped him with his diagnosis. This also showed me that I might not know

why people act out in certain ways, so to not judge them until I have tried to understand them.
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Conclusion
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I believe that this movie portrayed bipolar well. I think that it gave an accurate
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description of the possible life of a person with this diagnosis. This has helped me in the future

being a nurse knowing how difficult life can be for this person. It has changed the way I might be
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quick to judge someone with a mental disorder. It shows me that situations might be handled

differently, and that's ok it just might take more time, patience and adjustment to reach the same

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 MOVIE ANALYSIS
4

goals.

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This study source was downloaded by 100000830575513 from CourseHero.com on 11-07-2021 18:48:41 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/73631798/The-silver-lining-playbook/
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