Precious Movie Psychology

Ashanti Groves Professor Ross Abnormal Psychology 19 June 2024

Term Paper Character The movie “Precious” is about a sixteen-year-old young woman. Her name is Claireece "Precious" Jones, and she is a teen who struggles with obesity and abuse at the hands of her mother and father throughout the movie. Precious lives in a small, dilapidated apartment in Harlem, New York with her mother, Mary, and her son, who was a product of sexual assault by her father. Precious is also pregnant in the film with her second child by her father. In the movie, Precious struggles with illiteracy as she is not able to read and write, as well as being obese and pregnant with her second child. Precious and her mom have a very toxic and abusive relationship, as her

Symptoms The film does not show Precious indulging in a balanced meal throughout the movie. Instead, it is consistent to see her binge a large amount of food, leading to the conclusion that she may be suffering from a binge eating disorder, which also can play a role in her obesity. Binge eating can be defined as eating a large amount of food despite the fact that the person is hungry, often leading to physical discomfort or until they get sick. This can then lead to food affecting someone's relationships and one's relationship with food. Precious does fit the age onset that binge eating disorder ranges from as the range is 12-25 and most common among females. Although Precious is never directly diagnosed with anything in the film, she does explain to her social worker that her mother forces her to eat sometimes, even when she is not hungry. It can be noticed throughout the film that her relationship with food is not healthy. Like in the scene mentioned before, Precious ate a big portion of food in a very short amount of time until she made herself sick. She was also psychologically abused by her mother when she forced her to eat dinner as a form of punishment. This is an example of