Bipolar Disorders In Emily Martin's Silver Linings Playbook

In Silver Linings Playbook, the main character, Pat Solatano, diagnosed with bipolar disorder returns from a mental institution. In a manic rhythm, he starts reading books and going on runs to get his life back together. However, outbursts of anger prevent him from achieving his goal. Emily Martin, the author of Bipolar Expeditions, gives accounts of her ethnographic research of manic depression aka bipolar disorder and describes sufferers like Pat as those who “typically cycle between manic highs, in which they can for days go without sleep in the grip of grandiose delusions, and depressive lows, marked by preoccupation with death and feelings of worthlessness.’” (pg. 2, Martin) In the film, however, the director, Russel does no directly depict depression as a symptom of Bipolar disorder. Russel concentrates on delusions, anger management issues and states of manic optimism.
This misalignment, upon closer examination of Pat’s character and his strong wish for a silver lining in his life, can be explained through the idea that mania and anger are ways to escape depression. Whenever Pat faces a situation that makes him depressed, he either enters a state of mania where he is disillusioned with optimism or he bursts out …show more content…
Pat states “the world is hard as it is guys, fucking hard as it is, can’t somebody sya hey let’s be positive, let’s have a good ending for the story”. This dialogue reveals to us a key pattern in Pat’s behavior. The sad ending of the story made Pat feel insecure about his own happiness. It made him feel depressed as he implies in the dialogue and to escape these feelings of depression, Pat bursts out in anger, as seen when he throws out the book, and then enters a manic state of hyperactivity, as evidence by his rapid nervous speech and