In 2010 Black Swan, and Oscar-winning film, brought the dark and controversial topic of mental illness to the nation’s attention. Black Swan is a haunting film about a young ballerina, Nina--played by Natalie Portman--who is attempting to deal with increasing levels of stress and the pressure to perform. The film follows Nina’s as she eventually experiences a “first episode of psychosis”. The DSM-5 defines psychosis as experiencing a break from reality and an inability to distinguish what is real from what is not. According to the DSM-5, the criteria for psychosis must include one of the following: auditory or visual hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior, and a flattening of one’s emotions. A “first episode of psychosis” most often
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Nina’s struggle with anxiety is illustrated by her self-harm through scratching, itching, and picking. She exhibits obsessive and compulsive traits through the meticulous care of her ballet slippers and her drive to achieve perfection. The film makes it extremely clear that Nina also suffers from some form of an eating disorder and provides many examples of her self-starvation and purging episodes. Finally on top of all of that, Nina experienced tremendous amounts of external stress and pressure from her mother and ballet director. This is evident throughout the film through her mother-daughter dynamic and the demands from the director, both dancing and sexually …show more content…
A stigma of mental disorders is that they go hand and hand with a violent disposition. In Black Swan Nina violently lashes out multiple times throughout the film. Due to her paranoid delusion it makes sense that Nina may have had violent tendencies, but a violent personality is not linked to psychosis disorders. Another major criticism was that the film failed to provided a diagnosis or treatment of the Nina’s mental disorder and psychotic break down. I, however, would argue that this proved to be the most powerful aspect of the whole movie. The lack of a diagnosis or treatment in Black Swan and, finally the dramatic, on-stage death of Nina brought to light the seriousness of a mental disorder that goes unrecognised and untreated. Black Swan was very effective in its cinematic illustration of the dark struggle of psychosis disorder; and through this it captured the attention of its audience and created a national conversation about mental
Nina’s struggle with anxiety is illustrated by her self-harm through scratching, itching, and picking. She exhibits obsessive and compulsive traits through the meticulous care of her ballet slippers and her drive to achieve perfection. The film makes it extremely clear that Nina also suffers from some form of an eating disorder and provides many examples of her self-starvation and purging episodes. Finally on top of all of that, Nina experienced tremendous amounts of external stress and pressure from her mother and ballet director. This is evident throughout the film through her mother-daughter dynamic and the demands from the director, both dancing and sexually …show more content…
A stigma of mental disorders is that they go hand and hand with a violent disposition. In Black Swan Nina violently lashes out multiple times throughout the film. Due to her paranoid delusion it makes sense that Nina may have had violent tendencies, but a violent personality is not linked to psychosis disorders. Another major criticism was that the film failed to provided a diagnosis or treatment of the Nina’s mental disorder and psychotic break down. I, however, would argue that this proved to be the most powerful aspect of the whole movie. The lack of a diagnosis or treatment in Black Swan and, finally the dramatic, on-stage death of Nina brought to light the seriousness of a mental disorder that goes unrecognised and untreated. Black Swan was very effective in its cinematic illustration of the dark struggle of psychosis disorder; and through this it captured the attention of its audience and created a national conversation about mental