Short Term 12 Psychological Analysis

In the movie Short Term 12, a drama about a foster-care facility for troubled teenagers portrays the emotional journey of the teenagers and the staff running the facility. A troubled teenage girl named Jayden is brought into Short Term 12 because her father is not able to deal with her. Jayden has a past of self-harm and upon arrival is disinterested in befriending the other adolescents as she is not interested in “wasting time on short-term relationships.” Jayden displays symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder as she defies authority figures and throws tantrums. Using the illness prospective, Jayden can be diagnosed as having oppositional defiant disorder as well as depression. Antisocial behaviour such as rule breaking, running away and destroying property are actions Jayden engages in, she cusses when she's told not to,

The illness model focuses on diagnosing mental illnesses and providing medications to alleviate the suffering, this method however neglects to recognize how essential relationships and development may impact mental health. Although medication may be useful in coping with mental illness, not everyone with mental illness needs to be treated with medications. In the movie Short Term 12, Jayden’s rough upbringing of abuse and neglect has shaped her into a defiant teenager. Using only the illness model, how her abusive father contributes to her mental suffering can be overlooked. Only viewing Jayden’s suffering though the view of suffering as a transaction with the universe, her need for alternative coping methods may be unnoticed. The movie never specifies what medication Jayden has been taking but they are probably beneficial in the sense that they improve her mood. These paradigms can coexist and be used together to be most beneficial to ease mental