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Examples Of Mental Illness In Black Swan

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Mental illnesses and disorders have long been a tool of popular media as a ways of advancing a plot, developing a character/backstory, or a making a villain unlikeable or inhuman in some way. These portrayals are often exaggerated, an absolute extreme case of the disorder, or a combination of various psychological disorders’ symptoms in a way that would create the most dramatic effect. While there is a significant amount of media (movies, television, books, video games, ect.) that portray mental illness, the film that I chose to look at is the 2010 drama/thriller Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky. Black Swan is about a career ballerina Nina Sayer (played by Natalie Portman) in a New York city ballet company whose entire life has revolved around dancing. The ballet company is working on opening a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and the artistic director has made the choice to replace the company’s current Prima ballerina with someone who is younger. Not only must this new prima be younger, but she must also be able to fill the demanding role of the Swan queen with her two sides; the White Swan whom is very innocent and pure, and the Black Swan whom is very dark and grittier. To bring in some change to the …show more content…

Throughout the film Nina is repeatedly shown to not be eating, such as when she refuses the cake her mother got to celebrate her landing the role of Prima Ballerina, as well as making trips to the bathroom in order to purge what food she had eaten. She also constantly exercises even to the point of self-harm, which is another sign of eating disorders. Eating disorders have been known to be common in ballet dancers, having a believed 38% of dancers meeting the criteria of an eating disorder in their lifetimes. The presence of OCD also shows itself in a few ways, mainly the amount of repeated intrusive sexual thoughts and frequent over

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