Ordinary People Analysis

In the movie Ordinary People, the main character, Conrad Jarrett, suffers from what appears to be either Major Depression or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The diagnostic criteria for Major Depression in the DSM-5 is: depressed mood most of the day, diminished interest or pleasure in most activities, significant weight loss when not dieting, insomnia, psychomotor retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, feeling of worthlessness, diminished ability to concentrate, and recurrent thoughts of death (Oltmanns & Emery, 2015) . Conrad displays many of these criteria. He experiences diminished interest or pleasure in most activities that he once enjoyed. This can be seen when Conrad quits the swim team because he no longer enjoys swimming, something …show more content…
The event that seems to affect Conrad’s unhappiness the most is the death of his brother Buck in a boating accident. This event threw Conrad and his family 's world upside down. Almost everything reminds Conrad of his brother. The swim team and just swimming over all is making Conrad unhappy. Conrad says that he quits the swim team because he is not very good and he will sit on the bench all season. In reality it seems that Conrad is quitting the swim team because it reminds him to much of his brother. Conrad is also unhappy with his friends, Conrad tells one of his friends that he does not want to spend time with him anymore because he reminds him to much of Buck. The impact of his mother’s actions also affect Conrad 's happiness. His mother does not exhibit much affection toward him as he did with Buck. This makes Conrad feel as though his mother does not love him or care for him as much as she did for Buck. It seems as though the majority of Conrad’s unhappiness that does not stem from Buck’s death comes from the behavior of his mother. Conrad is also consumed with the thoughts of his suicide attempt. Conrad at one point says to his therapist, Dr. Burger that he feels that his mother hates him for his suicide attempt, as she redid the entire bathroom to get rid of all the blood. Conrad has difficulty forgiving himself for attempting suicide because he hurt his family after they had already been hurt by Buck’s …show more content…
Beth fits the criteria for Histrionic Personality Disorder. The diagnostic criteria for Histrionic Personality Disorder in the DSM-5 is: overly dramatic; attention-seeking behavior; easily angered; seductive; dependent on others; vain, shallow, manipulative; emotional displays are intense, exaggerated, but lack depth; emotionality has a “staged” quality to it. Beth is overly dramatic about just about everything, she gets extremely upset over finding out that Conrad quit the swim team from one of her friends rather than Conrad. She also over reacts when Calvin tells one of her friends at the dinner party that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist. Beth also has intense emotional displays, in both of those situations mentioned above. Her actions also have a “staged” quality to it. This can be seen in the way that she acts when Conrad says that he is not hungry at breakfast, she is overly dramatic when she dumps Conrad’s french toast down the garbage disposal. Beth Jarrett seems to have three of the four criteria of Histrionic Personality