Insert Shelby Mental Illness

Insert Leonard Shelby; a complex and perplexing character with a condition described as short-term memory. This “short-term memory,” as Leonard says, is not just amnesia; through additional research, it was revealed that it has a variation of amnesia called anterograde amnesia. This condition completely disables Leonard, making him incapable of recreating or crafting new embedded memories, as described by the National Library of Medicine (Smith). As the film progresses, Shelby exhibits odd behaviors that are not societal norms. Leonard not only suffered a blow to his head, but he mentions the incident that occurred that resulted in his brain splitting in half—a very traumatic experience that includes his wife being raped by an intruder. As

Because of the manner in which Leonard can only think about the incident and other memories before, it is concluded that Leonard may have PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Both of these disorders describe the abnormalities in his behavior and provide an explanation for his madness throughout the film. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, in the DM5, includes flashbacks that have a hallucinatory quality and hypervigilance that may reach paranoid proportions (American Psychiatric Association). PTSD exhibits many forms, for example, Acute stress response, uncomplicated disorder, complex PTSD, and comorbid PTSD (UHS Admin). These forms are not exactly PTSD, but rather, if left untreated, can develop into a more complex version of PTSD that may

As for uncomplicated PTSD, Leonard Shelby has been seen as having flashbacks to when the intruder attacked him and raped his wife. The memory displayed Shelby as fighting for his wife, but Shelby ended up getting a blow to the head, leading him to end up in a coma. After Shelby wakes up from the coma, his ability to remember current events in life dissipates. Leonard solely remembers events leading up to the attack; the sad truth is that he reminisces about what life once was like with his wife before the terror occurred. As stated by Thinking About Psychology, “Intense stress is the trigger, and these symptoms include persistent fear… and troubling memories of or flashbacks to the traumatic event…” (Blair-Broeker 498). This deeply correlates with Shelby’s symptoms. With his anterograde amnesia, it is hard for him to create memories as well, which contributes to his stress in trying to avenge his wife’s death; with all of the memories playing back like a broken record, Shelby states in the movie that the murderer destroyed his ability to live, and he is walking the streets just to get revenge on his wife. Along with his OCD, Shelby displays behaviors that are not the norm. For example, due to his inability to remember, he takes a myriad of photos or mementos from his Polaroid camera of people he meets. On the back of each memento, Leonard writes its purpose and what it means to