The movie chosen for this instance survey is “Shutter Island” . Shutter Island. released in February 2010. is a psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. The movie is based on the 2003 novel. besides titled Shutter Island. which was written by Dennis Lehane. The theories I will be associating to this capable analysis will come from Kelly’s. Gestalt’s. and Freud’s theories.
The narrative is set in Boston in 1954. The chief character is Teddy Daniels will be the topic in this instance survey. Edward Daniels nicknamed Teddy is a U. S Marshal and war veteran. who we are led to believe was left heartbroken when the love of his life. his married woman Dolores was killed in a fire in their flat started by a adult male named Andrew Laeddis. Teddy is haunted by the memories of his married woman every bit good as in writing World War 2 visions that inhabit his dreams on a regular footing. Small can be known about Teddy’s life prior to his wife’s decease other than that he is a Reformed alky who refuses to touch a drink.
When he is foremost introduced to us it is the twelvemonth 1954 and Teddy and his spouse are look intoing the unexplained disappearing of a patient in Ashecliffe Hospital for the reprehensively insane on Shutter Island located in Boston. Teddy has utmost trust issues and subsequently in the film becomes paranoid that everyone is seeking to cover-up the truth about what is truly go oning on the island. This is Teddy’s individuality from his ain point of view. which is subsequently revealed to all be a psychotic belief in his ain head. Teddy Daniels whose existent name is Andrew Laeddis is really a patient at the refuge. admitted after slaying his married woman two old ages ago ; his supposed spouse all along was his physician. who was trying to bring around him of his insanity. The theories I will be associating to this capable analysis will come from Kelly’s. Gestalt’s. and Freud’s theories.
From a psychoanalytic Perspective small information can be analyzed of Teddy based on his childhood. but there are other elements of Sigmund Freud’s theories about the unconscious that we can associate to. While he is populating in his fantasy life as an research worker on the island. his unconscious ideas frequently appear in his dreams. He sees his married woman come to him imploring him to give up on his pursuit for Andrew because he will non wish what he finds out and she doesn’t want him to acquire injury. He besides dreams of Rachel Solando coming to him with her children’s bloody organic structures. inquiring him to help her in disposing of them. As he holds the children’s bodies they come alive inquiring why he didn’t salvage them. This absolutely illustrates the psychoanalytic theory that dreams have two degrees of content.
The manifesting content is that Teddy thinks the dreams come from the fact that he is losing his married woman and merely can’t accept her decease and allow her travel and that the morbid feeling of the island is acquiring to him doing him to hold incubuss of the insane adult female he is look intoing. It is subsequently clear that the content of the dreams reveal the concealed significance of his experiences. In other words. there was no Rachel Solando. Teddy created her as a contemplation of himself because Dolores was manic-depressive who drowned their kids in a lake one twenty-four hours when he wasn’t place. When he returned and realized the tragic occurrences there was nil he could make. hence the incubuss of the kids asking as to why he couldn’t salvage them. In his dreams she frequently walks to him soaking moisture to which he asks her “Why are you all wet. babe? ” ( Shutter Island ) .
This phrase seems to stalk him because those are the first words he said to her when he came place that twenty-four hours she went brainsick. Teddy feels personally responsible for their decease because at the clip he was an alcoholic and while he loved his married woman. he refused to see her for who she truly was and ended up killing her after detecting the kids. In the dreams she tells him to give up because he is unable to get by with cognizing the truth. This leads on to how Teddy distorts his world to protect himself against his intolerable hurting and guilt through the usage of defence mechanisms. All of the memories of what truly happened to Dolores and the kids become pent-up and replaced with false semblances that his married woman was wrongfully murdered and he re-created himself as a hero in order to get by.
In conformity with this mechanism he suffers from post-traumatic emphasis syndrome. which the disturbing memories indirectly begin to uncover themselves in his dreams. Dr. Sheehan who in his head was his spouse used Kelly’s theory of re-construction by function playing. in which he decided to travel along with Teddy ( Andrew ) ’s psychotic beliefs in an effort to convey his head back to the existent universe and therefore salvage him from a encephalon leukotomy. which was forced to be their last resort.
When the truth is foremost revealed Teddy’s initial reaction is to fall back to the defence mechanism of denial. He refuses to accept that what they claim is what truly happened and is repetitive upon the fact that they have been dosing him with drugs in order to brainwash him and maintain him from detecting the truth about the atrocious human experiments that have been taking topographic point at the infirmary. Projection is besides used when he accuses the Doctor’s of doing up this narrative about what happened to him in order to protect their egos. These are both efforts to free his head of the anxiousness of the stimulation that he is unable to accept has any association with what happened in his life. Even before the truth is revealed. Teddy still believes that he is a hero and shows anxiousness while look intoing the island.
When the hospital’s chief psychologist makes a remark about Teddy forbearing from intoxicant and Teddy responds with a witty onslaught the physician notes his “excellent usage of defence mechanisms” ( Shutter Island ) . This may associate to his inexplicit memory because although Teddy at foremost does non hold any intuitions about the pragmatism of his ain individuality he seems to believe that everyone else is out to acquire him which serves as unconscious memories act uponing witting behaviour doing him to invariably be on defence about the purposes and actions of the people around him. When Teddy eventually comes out of his phase of denial and accepts the truth. the physicians fear that he will get worse and return back into his delusional province. It was stated that this had happened before with their other efforts to bring around him. Teddy fakes falling back into that phase in order to salvage himself his self-respect. he reveals his purposes by stating “which would be worse. to populate as a monster or to decease a good adult male? ” ( Shutter Island ) . This lets us cognize that Dr. Sheehan’s remedy proved effectual. but Teddy would instead non populate in that province of wretchedness or seek to travel on with his life cognizing the truth.
Teddy’s behaviour in conformity with his personality can besides be looked at in footings of cognitive theories. Gestalt psychological science suggests that the whole is greater than the amount of its parts which suggests that it was many different things together that shapes Teddy’s current character and why he re-acted the manner he did to the state of affairs. The major minute that had the most influence on Teddy’s life was when he decided to kill his married woman because she drowned their kids. There was ne’er any reference of any old mental damage prior to the incident. Using Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory it can be deducted that Teddy’s behaviour was “determined by complex interactions among a person’s internal psychological construction. the forces of the external environment. and the structural relationships between the individual and the environment” ( Friedman & A ; Schustack 221 ) .
When he arrives place to detect his married woman with her apparels all moisture and his children’s organic structures drifting dead in the lake the construct of contemporary causing leads him to kill her. This is because at the minute the behaviour occurred Teddy was focused internally on his hurting and unhappiness that his kids were gone every bit good as his choler towards Dolores for making such a atrocious thing. Therefore when she comes up to him and attempts to embrace and soothe him/her actions can be looked at as the external stimulation. All of these things put together can be linked to Teddy’s pick of action in the strong state of affairs. Teddy’s explanatory manner led him to construe his wife’s tragic actions as his ain mistake because he felt that his alcohol addiction distorted his ability to acknowledge Dolores’s mental unwellness. Alternatively of seeing her as manic-depressive he saw her as beautiful & amp ; non-violent. therefore unrecognizing of her dark side and unable to salvage his kids.
He could hold called the constabulary and reported his married woman. but makes the determination to go on the force. since he perceives her actions in his head as unforgiveable. It could besides be said that his job with intoxicant lowered his emotion cognition. doing him blind to acknowledging his wife’s emotions. George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory can besides be used to explicate Teddy’s behaviour as he is “investigating on the island” . Throughout the role-playing procedure Teddy is seting together pieces of the mystifier in an effort to understand precisely what is go oning on Shutter Island and building his ain version of world. In his head from what he is detecting he concludes that there is some kind of confederacy traveling on and the infirmary must be utilizing psychoactive medicine to command the heads of its patients. He interprets his unusual dreams as side effects of the drugs that he believes they must someway be stealing to him. George Kelly would explicate this as Teddy moving as his ain scientist. In effort to convey Teddy back from his fantasy universe the physicians at Ashecliffe Hospital phase a cognitive intercession in order to finallyTeach Teddy to “change his idea process” and accept the world of the events he really went through.
Teddy Daniels besides known as Andrew Laeddis is an highly challenging character to analyze in footings of personality. Before his matrimony to Dolores he likely could hold been analyzed for wholly different properties ; nevertheless the events in his life served as strong situational factors to determine the individual he had turned into. Before it is realized that he is really one of the reprehensively insane captives. Teddy could be described as smart. witty and independent. He stands up for himself even when he suspects that the bulk of the island is involved with the confederacy. After recognizing the truth behind all of his actions it is clear that his life is relatable to many of Freud’s theories which are all used to help him in “distorting world to protect him against hurting or threatening urges originating from the id” ( Friedman & A ; Schustack 77 ) .
It is besides really interesting that in his surrogate world he views himself as a good. guiltless individual who is looking to put bad things right. This could come from his unconscious cognition that he committed a violent offense and wants to take all of the incrimination off himself by portraying himself as a hero. The warden of Ashecliffe Hospital makes an interesting point of mention to the dark side of Teddy’s personality and human nature in general by stating him “You’re every bit violent as they come. I know because I am every bit violent as they come. Don’t embarrass yourself by denying your ain blood lecherousness. boy. Don’t embarrass me. If the restraints of society were removed. and I was all that stood between you and a repast. you’d check my skull with a stone and eat my meaty parts” ( Shutter Island ) . Teddy killed his married woman because he felt that after what she had done. it was the right thing to make and his surrogate personality serves as a cover-up because he “should” experience guilty that the type of force isn’t acceptable. no affair what Dolores had.
Overall the movie both contributes and reduces the stigmatisation of mental unwellness. On two occasions in the movie the patient is passively referred to as paranoid schizophrenic. This is a common misinterpretation with Dissociative Identity Disorder. for a long clip people have been mislabeling it as schizophrenic disorder. As a psychological science pupil it was great watching this movie and picking it an apart and being able to acknowledge the mislabeling of Teddy’s mental province. On the other manus. it was clearly displayed in the movie that individuals enduring with this upset can still hold a comparatively normal working life and they can still socially interact. This is non normally seen when a individual with this upset is fictionally portrayed. In decision. this psychological thriller in some ways does and in other ways does non portray Dissociative Identity Disorder accurately but it is however a great film.
CitationScorsese. M. ( Director ) . Dicaprio. L. ( Actor ) . ( 2010 ) . Shutter Island [ Motion image ] . Paramount Pictures.Shutter Island ( 2010. February 19 ) . The Internet Movie Database ( IMDB ) . Retrieved April 14. 2010. from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. imdb. com/title/tt1130884/
Friedman. H. S. & A ; Schustack. M. W. ( 2008 ) . Personality: Authoritative Theories and Modern Research ( 4th Edition ) . Boston. MA: Allyn & A ; Bacon.
Shutter Island ( movie ) – Wikipedia. the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved April 14. 2010. from hypertext transfer protocol: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Shutter_Island_ ( movie )
Movie Quotes for Shutter Island- Movie Planet. Retrieved April 14. 2010. from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. moviesplanet. com/movies/19305/shutter-island/quotes
