SUMMARY

Shutter Island is a highly secured place where mentally ill patient are being
institutionalized. The story begins at the arrival of a Marshall and his partner at the island with
the purpose of finding an escaped residence named, Rachel Solando, a woman turned in
because of killng her own husband and children. As they try to disclose the truth behind the
escape, they are also on their way of finding out that there is a 67 th patient in the institution, to
which the Marshall assumed to be Laddis, the man that he suspects to be responsible of burning
down their house and killing her wife. During his stay at the institution, the Marshall have
dreams about his wife, telling him that Rachel Solando and Laddis are still there. He also had a
dream of helping Rachel in putting her children’s corpses in the lake. He also hears voices of his
late wife whom he can’t let go of. As he continue his journey, the Marshall found out that the
institution is researching on Orbital Lobotomy, a barbaric type of surgical psychotherapy that
uses an ice pick-like metal that is inserted the eyes that delivers electric current to the brain
which they do in the Lighthouse, a reason why the government is concealing the said island.
With this discovery, the Marshall is now more determined of unravelling the truth from this ever
twisted story. As he is on his way to the lighthouse, he discovered Rachel Solando, hiding in the
cave. She told the Marshall that she was once a staff doctor in the place and that they accused
her of being insane when she no longer believed in the purpose of the study which makes one’s
mind controllable, emotionless, no memory and numb of any pain, a perfect opportunity for the
government to make a perfect army. She also told the Marshall that the pill, cigarette, and food
that he is taking contain substances that could make him go insane, a reason why no one can
ever leave the island. But as he found his way on the lighthouse he found nothing but the chief
of the institution sitting. The chief told him the truth that he is the 67 th patient, and that Rachel
and Laddis is not real but only a part of a story that he made up to cover up and protect his ego
from the reality that he is the one who killed his depressed and suicidal wife who drowned their
daughter in the lake as a result of alcohol influence. The chief also told him that with these
superb creativity of his imagination that he is capable of, he is considered to be the most
dangerous patient of all and that they are only playing along with his story for the past 2 years
to be able to reach him and serve as a bridge to reality. He is Andrew Laddis and that his
partner was actually his psychiatrist. He accepted this and he regressed. But the real twist of the
story comes in the end where he talked to his psychiatrist as if it is his partner. A signal that he
had still believe in his delusions.

Shutter Island
~Film Analysis ~
 REACTION
The storyline of the movie was beautifully created. The movie was able to give justice to
that fact that a patient with psychiatric illness, as Andrew Laddis, have such delusions that are
really deceitful and that it would really be hard to tell which is real. Even I, who is considered to
be a mentally healthy individual, had a hard time differentiating what is real from not. The
movie was also able to show me that an event that a patient was not able to cope up with in his
history is a great factor for the occurrence of such illness.

The movie is also full of symbolism such as the lighthouse which symbolizes the light to
reality for Andrew Laddis. The Shutter Island itself represents insanity and the extreme security
breach on it represent how hard it is to escape from insanity, likewise how hard it is for a
mentally ill individual to get well. Psychopharmacology was also given justice in the movie as
they were able to mention neuroleptics, chlorpromazine and withdrawal symptoms.

The movie gives us a great opportunity to be able to see the situations that we may
experience when we interact with patients who are mentally ill as what was shown on Andrew
Laddis interview with the two residences in the facility who knows Rachel Solando. Symptoms
such as circumstantiality, tangentility, and flight of ideas were very prominent in the scene.
Lastly, the movie was a great way for us student nurses to be able to prepare ourselves to our
psychiatric ward exposure because of the information that we were able to extract from such a
great story.

Shutter Island
~Film Analysis ~
 MANIFESTATIONS
DELUSION
 During the whole story, he thought that he is a Marshall and he is in the Shutter Island
for on Investigation.

HALLUCINATION
 He hears his wife’s voice when he was in Building C when he was talking to his friend
when he is in search of Laddis
 He sees his wife at the lighthouse talking to him when he discovered the reality
 He saw Rachel Solando in a cave where in fact there is no Rachel Solando.
 He sees his partner Chuck where in fact he has no partner

PARANOIA
 He believes that the pills, cigarette and the food that the facility is providing them is
making him insane
 He believes that the chief of the institution does not want him to leave the facility.
 He believes that Chuck is also trying to help the institution of keeping him there.

REPRESSION
 He cannot remember the fact that he killed his wife.

Shutter Island
~Film Analysis ~
 Treatment used for Andrew Laddis’
Schizophrenia
Psychotherapy is an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists
to aid a client or patient in problems of living. In the case of Sybil, Dr. Wilbur used all of the approach
in in psychoanalysis in the pursuit of understanding Sybil’s behavior.

Treatment of dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder may attempt to

reconnect the identities of disparate alters into a single functioning identity. And this was significantly
evident at the end of the film when Dr. Wilbur hypnotized Sybil for her to meet her other personalities
and accept them. In addition or instead, treatment may focus on symptoms, to relieve the distressing
aspects of the condition and ensure the safety of the individual. Dr. Wilbur was forced to treat her with
the method of psychopharmacology using tranquilizwer to calm her down when she was having a
breakdown and attempted to commit suicide in the parson of Mary.

Some behavior therapists initially use behavioral treatments such as only responding to a single
identity, and using more traditional therapy once a consistent response is established. It has been
stated that treatment recommendations that follow from models that do not believe in the traumatic
origins of DID might be harmful due to the fact that they ignore the posttraumatic symptomatology of
people with DID.

Shutter Island
~Film Analysis ~
 Shutter Island
Film Analysis
Submitted By
Yanguas, Bryan Christopher R.

Group 4 SANLINGAN

Psychiatric Rotation

Submitted To

Jeremiah Buenafe RN MN

Shutter Island
~Film Analysis ~