Black Swan and The Paranoid Schizophrenic Mind Mental health represents a wide range of disorders that tend to have a bad reputation in society. The stigma towards these disorders represents a misguidance and social lack of education regarding the truth behind the problem. The media as well as cinema photography tend to over dramatize and add unrealistic portrayals making the disorder look worse than it really is. In the film Black Swan, a ballerina by the name of Nina falls tragic to a wide range of disorders in order to become the perfect dancer. Black Swan represents the downward spiral into the paranoid schizophrenic mind of a women who is looking for perfection in herself, acceptance from her mother and a way of proving her self worth
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While given this opportunity, she is faced with the issue of not being edgy enough to dance the part of the black swan, and is constantly being told to be less stiff and to add sexuality to her dancing (Villarreal, C., 2010). She begins to unravel when a new dancer is introduced and threatens the chances of Nina remaining the lead dancer of the play. The new dancer, Lily, lacks the skills that Nina has but represents the edgier side that is needed to perform the dance of the black swan. As a result of Nina’s insecurities and need for perfection, this causes her to start slipping from reality. Nina starts having vivid hallucinations that seem as though they have happened but in reality were just a figment of her mental state. She begins hallucinating acts of violence and sexual content that involves herself and others. In the process of slipping from reality, she is able to finally free herself from her perfections and allow her dark side to come out. She appears on opening night of the performance and performs the best performance of her career but subsequently becomes her last performance. Her hallucinations and paranoia of possibly not getting to dance on opening night created a disillusion of characters within herself and ultimately caused her to harm herself unknowingly back stage. Nina, not realizing what she had done to herself, dances the last act …show more content…
Nina could be mistakenly diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder because of the role she plays for work (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). She is conflicted by playing the persona of two different characters, the white swan and the black swan. The white swan is innocent and honest while the black swan is violent, careless, and sexual. Nina is the white swan and struggles to play the part of the black swan. In the process of transforming herself into the black swan, Nina struggles with dynamic of maintaining her innocent strict ways while letting go and becoming the free spirit of the black swan (Aronofsky, D., 2011). The struggle ultimately is too much and she breaks down. It is easy to mistake her disorder for Dissociative Identity Disorder but the diagnosis of schizophrenia is more appropriate because of the delusions and the hallucinations (Villarreal, C.,
While given this opportunity, she is faced with the issue of not being edgy enough to dance the part of the black swan, and is constantly being told to be less stiff and to add sexuality to her dancing (Villarreal, C., 2010). She begins to unravel when a new dancer is introduced and threatens the chances of Nina remaining the lead dancer of the play. The new dancer, Lily, lacks the skills that Nina has but represents the edgier side that is needed to perform the dance of the black swan. As a result of Nina’s insecurities and need for perfection, this causes her to start slipping from reality. Nina starts having vivid hallucinations that seem as though they have happened but in reality were just a figment of her mental state. She begins hallucinating acts of violence and sexual content that involves herself and others. In the process of slipping from reality, she is able to finally free herself from her perfections and allow her dark side to come out. She appears on opening night of the performance and performs the best performance of her career but subsequently becomes her last performance. Her hallucinations and paranoia of possibly not getting to dance on opening night created a disillusion of characters within herself and ultimately caused her to harm herself unknowingly back stage. Nina, not realizing what she had done to herself, dances the last act …show more content…
Nina could be mistakenly diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder because of the role she plays for work (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). She is conflicted by playing the persona of two different characters, the white swan and the black swan. The white swan is innocent and honest while the black swan is violent, careless, and sexual. Nina is the white swan and struggles to play the part of the black swan. In the process of transforming herself into the black swan, Nina struggles with dynamic of maintaining her innocent strict ways while letting go and becoming the free spirit of the black swan (Aronofsky, D., 2011). The struggle ultimately is too much and she breaks down. It is easy to mistake her disorder for Dissociative Identity Disorder but the diagnosis of schizophrenia is more appropriate because of the delusions and the hallucinations (Villarreal, C.,