ipl-logo

Howard Hughes 'OCD In The Film The Aviator'

1176 Words5 Pages

The Aviator depicts an eccentric man who enjoys designing and flying planes, directing films, and spending insane amounts of money on both of those things. Howard Hughes isn’t afraid of taking financial risks, but he is afraid of germs. Throughout the film, Hughes struggles with symptoms of OCD that range from mildly quirky to extremely impairing, sometimes derailing his entire life. Howard Hughes shows many signs of OCD throughout this movie, specifically of the contamination subtype. Some of his symptoms were more subtle, such as refusing to eat his food after Errol Flynn steals one of his twelve peas off his plate. Other “quirks” include only drinking milk that has the cap still on, wrapping his steering wheel in cellophane, and refusing …show more content…

At one point, Hughes locks himself in his screening room for days, repeating and counting phrases like “come in with the milk” and writhing on the floor. His obsession with avoiding germs causes him to act on compulsions like washing his hands, counting, spelling, or repeating phrases. These consume much of his time, the paranoia completely taking over his life in some instances. The Aviator depicts Hughes’s distress clearly through furrowing his brows for many interactions or covering his mouth to try to stop his compulsive repetition of phrases. To confirm his symptoms represent OCD, we would need to know if another mental disorder, medical condition, or …show more content…

If Hughes was seeking treatment today, I would highly recommend Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD. This treatment would allow Hughes to confront his obsessions and fears in a safe way, slowly reducing his urge to perform compulsions. Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD is highly effective and empirically supported, so I believe it would help reduce Hughes’s symptoms. I would also recommend CBT for OCD, specifically for Hughes’s paranoia because it would allow him to recognize the invalidity of his

Show More
Related
294 Words | 2 Pages

“I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do” he says (Paragraph 2). For some people, this does not happen; except for Bruce

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

And I’m crawling on my belly to get it.”   He said he felt as if he was watching himself and was disgusted as to what he could see himself doing at that occurring moment. If one were to be mentally dysfunctional they would not see or feel themselves in that type of

Read More
1014 Words | 5 Pages

There are more plausible solutions such as a lack of medical knowledge, convulsive

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, we see various types of psychological events at work in the Oregon psychiatric hospital. We see phenomenons like attitudes, conformity, obedience and more in the actions of the patients and even nurses of this hospital. One of the biggest themes in this movie is that of conformity or even nonconformity, which is exemplified in the hot-headed lady's man, R.P. McMurphy. Through his interactions with the other patients, guards, and nurses, we see a change in everyone around him as well as some personal changes in Mac himself. I will plan to address these phenomenons and use examples from the movie.

Read More
1480 Words | 6 Pages

In addition to CBT, I believe medication could also help him deal with the anxiety he suffers

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

He is in a sense psychotic. For some reason he likes to see people get torture; his eyes say it all. He goes to prison for breaking into an middle age ladies house and harms her with one of her work of art. We know that in Classical Hollywood Films the main character always faces one sort of problem. At the end of the film talking classical Hollywood films they tend to resolve the problem.

Read More
1305 Words | 6 Pages

Beating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I. You may have heard the phrase “My OCD is kicking in” when something is disorganized and a person cannot deal with it and has to fix the issue then and there to make it organized but, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is quite more difficult than that. A. According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary Obsessive is defined as “a state in which someone thinks about someone or something constantly or frequently especially in a way that is not normal.”, and Compulsive is defined as “caused by a desire that is too strong to resist: impossible to stop or control.” The two together do not come out with a good aftermath.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Signs and symptoms may vary, but usually involve delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech, and reflect an impaired ability to function” (Mayo Clinic). Hints of these symptoms are seen in Perry's behavior consistently. When Perry's dad snatched a biscuit out of his hand, Perry says, “My hands got hold of his throat. My hands, but I couldn't control them. They wanted to choke him to death” (136).

Read More
1041 Words | 5 Pages

In the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a group of men living in a psychiatric ward are dealing with different types of disorders. The character that I chose to observe and analyze was Billy Bibbit. Billy is a young man who struggles to speak without stuttering and make his own decisions. He seeks approval from those around him and is always worried he will disappoint those around him. Although some people at this psychiatric ward are committed, Billy is a voluntary patient.

Read More
1374 Words | 6 Pages

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective type of psychotherapy for this disorder,where the patient is exposed many times to a situation that triggers the obsessive thoughts, and learns gradually to tolerate the anxiety and resist the urge to perform the compulsion. Medication and CBT together are considered to be better than either treatment alone at reducing symptoms. The patient is strongly encouraged to refrain from his or her habits, with support provided by the therapist, and possibly by others whom the patient calls for assistance. For example, a compulsive hand washer may be encouraged to touch an object believed to be contaminated, and then urged to avoid washing for several hours until the anxiety provoked has greatly decreased. This process leads to the start of another process,which is the process of “Habituation”.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Some examples from the movie of these symptoms playing out include Andrew suffering from flashbacks to WWII of concentration camps and assembly-line style mass murder, and Andrew experiencing nightmares blurred together with experiences of his family and the war, containing images such as water, his children, and the gun used to shoot his

Read More
516 Words | 3 Pages

His illness is not specified in the movie. 2. James Robert Kennedy had a mental illness, but it was implied, and not discussed in the movie. It was obvious that he had an illness because of his few words and slow thoughts, also on how his mother treated him as if he was not an 18 year old, but as a 6 year old. In the movie, James was not fully aware of his illness, he understood that he could not attend school and learned slower than others, but did not understand why because he would walk by the school by his house everyday and watch the football practices and continues to ask his mom why he could not play.

Read More
843 Words | 4 Pages

Evidenced based treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) includes both pharmacological and psychological treatments. Often, treatment is most effective

Read More
673 Words | 3 Pages

“Paranoia is the belief that people are conspiring against you and deliberately trying to harm you” (Mirowsky, Ross 228). It is only natural for a man who had everything taken away from him to be wary of his surroundings, and find it difficult to trust anyone or anything. However, Chief’s association of the Nurse's station with a control panel that keeps the entire ward running, reveals his deepest layer of paranoia. Chief has always felt as though he was being controlled, and his paranoia regarding those running the ward shows readers that he does not trust them in any way.

Read More
1099 Words | 5 Pages

Last of all I will explain how OCD is treated and/or relieved. OCD was originally considered an anxiety disorder and is a disabling disorder that puts people in endless cycles and repetitive situations. Doing actions called compulsions are done to try and stop the thoughts. A compulsions is, by definition ? the action or state of being forced to do something?.

Read More

More about Howard Hughes 'OCD In The Film The Aviator'

Related Topics

Open Document