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The Shining Schizophrenia

545 Words3 Pages

Producer and director Stanley Kubrick created “The Shining” based off the of book by Stephen King and is possibly one of the most well-known horror movies. I grew up watching this movie with my family and never fully understood the psychiatric component of it until now. By looking deeper into the movie and not just watching it for the horror factor there are many sings that the main character, Jack Torrent, has schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The signs of schizophrenia that Jack exhibited included disorganized behavior, aggression, compulsive behavior, hostility, delusion, mental confusion, anger, anxiety, loss of interest, hallucinations, paranoia, and hearing voices. The signs of OCD that Jack exhibited were agitation, repetitive movements, social isolation, repetition of actions, depression, and nightmares. In the beginning of the movie Jack is interviewing …show more content…

Alcoholism and a history of abuse are his weaknesses and his strengths are that he has been sober for 5 months, chose a difficult job so he can provide for his family, and work on his book. After living at the hotel for a month Jack begins to exhibit symptoms including hallucinating he sees a bartender named Lloyd, mood swings, obsessive about working, sleep disturbances, easy to anger, aggressive, and repeatedly typing “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. As the movie progresses the hallucinations and voices come more often, there are more of them, and one of the hallucinations, Delbert Grady, tells him he must “set his family right…in the most severe way”. This is when Jack becomes violent, he tries to kill his wife and son and successfully kills a cook who returned to the hotel to check on the family. While trying to hunt down his son he goes outside in the snow and enters a maze where his son is hiding. Consequently, he freezes to death as his family

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