Silver Linings Playbook Psychology

The Silver Linings Playbook The movie, The Silver Linings Playbook, is a romantic comedy that features two characters facing their own mental illness and battle for love. One night, Pat Solitano shockingly saw his wife have an affair with a guy, which resulted in Pat nearly beating him to death. His now, ex-wife, Nikki, moved away and has a restraining order against him. Pat gets put into a mental institution for eight months and was finally released. This devastating event was mainly the cause of his Bipolar Disorder. He couldn’t realize what he did was outrageous and continuously tried to find ways to get Nikki back. Later on, he chose to completely turn his life around and made a new goal to always see the good or silver linings in life.

Beginning with the theory of mind, it is the ability to read others’ mental states and feelings (Myers, 2016, pg. 133). People with an impaired theory of mind don’t usually understand that others may have different perspectives and opinions from them. This is generally the cause of problems with social interactions. The film demonstrated this theory by presenting a conversation between Pat and Tiffany. She tells Pat that oftentimes, he makes more inappropriate comments than appropriate comments. This can be shown when Pat mentions her husband’s death inappropriately, which she then slapped him in the face. Pat doesn’t understand that what he may say can affect how she feels. Therefore, many people with Bipolar Disorder have an impaired theory of mind, making it difficult to interact with others. Another theory that was demonstrated in the film, is the Big Five Personality Theory. This theory believes that there are five core personality traits; such as extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. However, one trait, in particular, is related to the mania in Bipolar Disorder, and that is neuroticism—emotional stability. Individuals who are high in neuroticism would typically respond very emotionally to certain events that wouldn’t affect most people. In the film, this was shown when Pat broke down after reading Hemingway, and threw the book out his window, breaking the glass. He felt the need to wake his parents up to rant to them about it very early in the morning. This shows he isn’t capable of resisting difficulties without becoming emotionally