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Examples Of Mental Illness In American Beauty

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The 1999 cinematic film, American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball, is a film that portrays characters of different mental illnesses of a not so typical suburban life. Their illnesses bring many changes in the story. At first only a few of the characters seem to display some kind of mental illnesses but as the story goes on we are able to see that each and every character has a certain psychiatric illness. Lester and Carolyn Burnham have the shell of a loving husband and wife. The Burnham’s seem to have the “American Dream.” Carolyn is a very ambitious, materialistic, impatient and self-centered. She doesn’t seem to regard the feelings of anyone including her husband and daughter. Their daughter Jane hates her mother …show more content…

With his daughter hating him, him losing his job, and his aggravating relationship with his life he feels like he has nothing to lose, so he becomes rebellious. He confronts his wife and tells her that he is never going to listen to her ever again, he shows this passive mode and speaks against his dominant and egoistic wife. He shows the symptoms of a Passive Aggressive disorder and also depression. This is a Passive Aggressive Disorder is a personality disorder where a person complies to the needs and desires of others but in reality hates it. Therapy can help change behavior and work through anger, resentment, or low self-esteem issues. All the issues that Lester has affects Janes mentality. She admits that her dad causes a massive psychological damage on her. This shows that she has a borderline disorder as she feels that she is the victim of her parents. Borderline Personality disorder is something that creates impulsivity and instability, poor self-image and stormy personal relationships. Ricky Fitts is also one with a mental illness due to family situation, something him and Jane have in common. Ricky thinks that the beauty in life keeps him from fear. He is able to overcome the fear for his father through his recording of beauty. With his odd behavior is mental illness can be defined as a Schizotypal Personality Disorder. With this disorder he doesn’t respond to social events very

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