Author Archive: Anthony Tobia, MD

FRIDAY THE 13TH

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Filmed in Blairstown, NJ, Friday the 13th is a 1980 slasher film written by Victor Miller. New Jersey stands second to no one when it comes to the weird and sinister. Many movies (The Toxic Avenger) and media (War of the Worlds radio broadcast) have either been set in or inspired by (Jaws, Halloween) events that have occurred in the Great Garden State (yes, even The Amityville Horror was partially filmed in Toms River, NJ!).

Friday the 13th depicts a group of teenagers who are murdered one-by-one while attempting to reopen an abandoned campsite. The movie begins in the summer of 1957 with two camp counselors being murdered by an unseen assailant after they sneak away to a cabin to “party.” The film then jumps to present day, and chronicles the ill-fated attempt of Steve Christy and a group of counselors to reopen Camp Crystal Lake. Friday the 13th introduces the uI?ber-slasher, Jason Voorhees, an imposing giant donning a goalie mask and wielding a machete.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF FRIDAY THE 13TH

The Substance Related and Addictive Disorders chapter in the DSM-5 includes the category of Substance-Induced Disorders. Substance-Induced Disorders may include substance intoxication, substance withdrawal, substance-induced mental disorders (e.g. Alcohol-Induced Mood Disorder) and other syndromes caused by the ingestion of a substance (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome, overdose, etc.).

Friday the 13th serves to teach points of the Substance-Induced Disorders and Syndromes such as the introduction of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) through plot summary. For example, the motive behind the mass murders at Camp Crystal Lake correlates with a case of FAS. [Spoiler Alert] When Mrs. Voorhees reveals herself as the killer, we learn that her rampage is the result of severe mental illness endured from the loss of her son, Jason, who drowned because camp counselors were drinking and having sex. Just as FAS results from the teratogenic effects of alcohol (in utero), the fate of a young Jason Voorhees results directly from the influence of alcohol on camp counselors who were partying instead of supervising the 11-year-old boy swimming in Crystal Lake.

Last week’s movie: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Next week’s movie: I Can See You (2008)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Night of the Living Dead is an independent film directed by George A. Romero that follows a wayward protagonist, Ben, and 6 others who are trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse. Their shelter is attacked by “living dead” ghouls, making Night the landmark zombie film of its generation. Among Night’s many contributions are that the zombies a) resemble “regular people,” b) possess memory and rudimentary intelligence, c) could be de-animated only by destroying the brain, and d) are cannibals.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Night of the Living Dead is renowned for relegating the zombie horde to a backdrop of the human condition, thus allowing the viewer to focus on human motivation during a time of crisis. In his 1943 manuscript, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Maslow posited a hierarchy of human needs based on two groupings: deficiency needs and growth needs. Night of the Living Dead serves to review Maslow’s deficiency needs; specifically, those of physiological, safety, belongingness, and esteem. Within the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level. This principle is tested with the introduction of Mr. Harry Cooper and Tom, as the group dynamic displaces the zombie as the primary threat. Harry represents the need for safety/shelter, as he is adamant that the cellar is the most secure area of the home. His point of view is opposed by Ben who counters that the upstairs is the most important area to protect because of its resources (including the physiological need for food). Their conflict of prioritizing their deficiency replaces the zombies as the primary threat. Ben’s assertion is loyal to the Maslowian pyramid, as Harry puts safety needs ahead of the biological. Their conflict reaches a pinnacle when Harry grabs Ben’s rifle and threatens to shoot him. Ben wrestles the gun away when it fires, mortally wounding Harry who (ironically) stumbles into the cellar and dies.

MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg

Last week’s movie: Wrong Turn (2013)
Next week’s movie: Friday the 13th (1980)

WRONG TURN (2003)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Inspired by our December 12 trek through New Mexico, The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn is a
horror movie depicting medical student, Chris Flynn, and his unfortunate rendezvous with five
motorists stranded in the West Virginia “holler.” Just when you might be tempted to argue that
Silent Hill (2006) is a more deserving horror movie in West Virginia, we are made aware of the
role of the main character. Since the medical student has WV license plates, he most likely
attends West Virginia University. Any horror movie depicting a WVU medical student warrants
top billing in 52in52 (with all due respect to Silent Hill)!

While it’s near impossible to mention “West Virginia’ and “medical student’ in the same
sentence without thinking about Morgantown (or Charleston), it’s the film’s rural setting that
allows for a sinister, if not prejudicial, backdrop for horror, with the archetypal, prosocial
warning to “be careful taking the path less beaten.” Scott even references Deliverance (1972)
despite that film being set in Georgia (he would have done well to check out April 3 on our
itinerary). While the history of the cannibalistic, half-feral, mutants is disclosed in subsequent
sequels, the following post is based solely on the original film.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF WRONG TURN

Wrong Turn serves to review the algorithm on how to diagnostically approach mental illness. The 3-step process includes ensuring that a patient’s chief complaint is not due to a) another general medical condition or b) the direct physiologic effects of a substance. The DSM-5 lists potential substances as medications, drugs, or toxins. Only after these are ruled-out should a psychiatrist c) attribute the patient’s symptoms to mental illness.

A. Rule-out Another Mental Disorder

As early as the opening credits, we are reminded of the effects genetics play in the predisposition of mental illness. Signs and symptoms such as “psychosis” and violent outbursts” appear in a montage of newspaper articles along with hints of the role of genetics.

B. Rule-out the Direct Physiologic Effects of a Substance

Immediately following the opening credits, we see Chris Flynn driving to Raleigh. The music on the car radio references whiskey, and serves as foreshadowing to alcohol’s influence on the plot. When his route is blocked by a chemical (toxin) spill, viewers are left to wonder if the highway is a corridor for the transport of hazardous materials and if so, whether previous spills are the cause of the mutants’ pathology. In this sense, Wrong Turn may be viewed as a rhetorical case study of a substance- or toxin-induced psychotic disorder. Soon after he crashes into the hikers’ truck, they refer to Fran and Evan as “stoners,” and Jessie calls Chris a “mule.”

C. Mental Illness

Once A and B above have been ruled-out, psychiatrists will begin to formulate the most likely diagnosis based on current, recent, and past signs and symptoms. Since it’s established that the prominent symptoms are psychotic, our most likely and differential diagnoses will come from the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders chapter.

Since Wrong Turn is likely a case study of a toxin-induced psychotic disorder (choice B above), elaboration on a primary psychotic disorder is beyond the scope of this post. Interestingly, alcohol use also figured prominently in many adaptations of the blood feud between the West Virginia family, the Hatfields, and their Kentucky rivals (McCoys). Wrong Turn then is another cautionary tale in West Virginia folklore about the hazards of excessive alcohol use.

Characters from Wrong Turn fitting into Joss Whedon’s Archetypes
Cabin in the Woods archetype Character from Wrong Turn
The Slut Francine
The Athlete Jessie Burlingame
The Scholar Chris Flynn
The Fool Evan
The Virgins Scott and Carly (we had to improvise)

Last week’s movie: An American Crime (2007)
Next week’s movie: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

AN AMERICAN CRIME (2007)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

An American Crime is a drama based on the true story of Sylvia Likens by an Indianapolis housewife, and is told through a series of flashbacks of eye witnesses during 1966 trial of Gertrude Baniszewski.

The movie accounts the life of sisters, Sylvia and Jenny Likens after their father leaves them in the custody of Gertrude so that he can travel with the carnival through Indiana. The carnival has long been the setting for folkloric myths intertwined with mental illness. From the human novelty exhibition of Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), to Erik from Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, both man and mystery are “one combined.” However, the carnival has never been as unsettling of a backdrop as the one it provides for An American Crime.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF AN AMERICAN CRIME

We are first introduced to Gertrude (Gerti) Nadine Baniszewski upon her returning from church when she tells a fellow parishioner that she “is better,” and that now, she can pick-up more ironing as she tries to make ends meet. While the conversation on the bus establishes a history of mental illness, we are not initially provided any further details.

In addition to psychiatric themes such as Nicotine Use Disorder, and possibly Pedophilic Disorder, the focus of the film is Gerti’s disorganized behavior (impulsively whipping Sylvia when payment is late) which is initially observed upon adopting the responsibility of Sylvia and Jenny Likens. Despite Mr. Likens’s $20 coming soon after, Gerti’s violent behavior continues and progresses to torture. Further evidence of her denial occurs when she confronts Sylvia, “you flirt with Andy’I saw you!” What was a neutral interaction between Sylvia and Gerti’s ex-boyfriend was imparted a fixed belief shrouded in jealousy. While Gerti demonstrates psychotic symptoms as described above, she likely does not have a primary psychotic disorder given that she appears cognitively intact. As a formal thought disorder, we would expect Gerti to demonstrate deficits in attention, memory or speech if she was afflicted with a psychotic illness such as Schizophrenia.

Later, Gerti discloses that she’s addicted to Phenobarbital and Chlorpheniramine (an antihistamine). Taken together, Gerti’s chronic cough is likely due to asthma (and possible gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD), both of which are worsened by cigarette smoking. Her self-medicating with the above drugs exacerbated psychotic and antisocial traits that directly contributed to the torture, rape, and death of Sylvia Likens. Given that Coricidin contains acetaminophen in addition to chlorpheniramine, liver toxicity (rule-out encephalopathy) may have further contributed to Gerti’s behavior.

The film may also be viewed through the eyes of the other children, who choose not to intervene when Sylvia is repeatedly tortured. Here, 2 characters deserve special mention; Johnny and Ricky. Johnny demonstrates cruelty to animals and a motivated disregard for others’ safety. Given his age, 13, he is therefore likely afflicted with Conduct Disorder. Conversely, Ricky’s behavior is likely the result of the Stockholm syndrome; stress resulting in his loss of identity and consequent identification with the aggressors.

Finally, the film itself appears to be an artistic expression of the double bind, a family dynamic where a person receives simultaneous mixed messages. For example, a child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship when a mother tells her son that she loves him, while at the same time turning her head away in disgust. In An American Crime, the disturbing content is balanced by the equal and opposite music from a soundtrack that includes Petula Clark’s Downtown and Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me.

Last week’s movie: The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Next week’s movie: Wrong Turn (2003)

YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

One morning in 1940, the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire disappeared. 572 people left behind all of their possessions and walked together up a winding mountain trail into the wilderness never to be heard from again. A search party dispatched by the U.S. Army eventually discovered the remains of nearly 300 of Friar’s evacuees. Many had frozen to death while others were slaughtered. Over the years, a quiet cover-up operation managed to weave the story of Friar into the stuff urban legends are made of. The town has slowly repopulated, but the vast wilderness is mostly untracked, with the northern-most stretches off limits to local hunters and loggers. In 2008, the coordinates for the “YELLOWBRICKROAD” trail head were declassified.

The first official expedition into the sick and twisted wilderness will attempt to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar. The researchers’ hopes to turn a legend into an item of recorded history are jeopardized when their equipment fails; leaving them lost and at the will of what evil lurks in the woods.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF YELLOW BRICK ROAD

In our curriculum at Rutgers-RWJMS, we relate episodic illnesses (such as Delirium and Major Depressive Disorder) to ghost stories. In their quest for discovery, the ghosts from 1940 Friar will haunt a group of researchers, allowing for YellowBrickRoad to be discussed in the context of Delirium. Serial mental status examinations by Walter (a psychologist) reveal progressive cognitive decline in the group that is abrupt in onset. One researcher, Daryl, demonstrates alterations in cognition and consciousness incident to his discovery of a hat that bears a resemblance to that of Elphaba’s, but is more appropriately comparable to the (Mad) Hatter’s in Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Hatter is a principal character who is portrayed as mad, asking unanswerable riddles and reciting nonsensical poetry. His reality parallels that of the expedition in that he is trapped in a never-ending tea party; time having stopped, keeping him and the March Hare at 6:00 pm forever. While the Hatter is portrayed as mad, the phrase “Mad Hatter” doesn’t appear in Carroll’s works. Instead, it refers to a delirium caused by mercury poisoning that can be traced back to the 19th century when mercury-based compounds were used to make fine hats.

Daryl’s delirium however is not caused by mercury poisoning but is likely due to anticholinergic toxicity from deadly nightshade. Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) is an anticholinergic alkaloid amine (plant metabolite), and is one of the 3 subgroups of alkaloid amines which also include the hallucinogenic alkaloid amines and the stimulant alkaloid amines. The film may therefore be conceptualized as a depiction of delirium due to the direct physiologic effects of Atropa belladonna, i.e. anticholinergic toxicity.

In addition to serving as a case study of delirium “spread” through mechanisms of Shared Psychotic Disorder (versus mass poisoning), YellowBrickRoad also references Jungian theory by teaching the archetypal warning of “losing oneself in the wilderness.” This may be taken both metaphorically, as the characters stray from their own rationality, as well as literally. The original townspeople’s abandonment of Friar has less to do with what they were walking towards and more to do with what they were leaving behind and has its roots in manifest destiny. Accordingly, Yellow Brick Road should be viewed along with other rural gothic narratives such as The Shining (1980) and its own reference, the ill-fated Donner Party (1846’1847).

Last week’s movie: Carrie (1976)
Next week’s movie: Wolf (1994)

JAWS (1975)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Peter Benchley’s “remake of Moby Dick” was adapted to the screen. Inspired by the 1916 shark attacks down the Jersey shore, Jaws is the tale of a rogue shark that terrorizes the small island community of Amity. Jaws caused many viewers to be afraid to enter the ocean in the lost summer of 1975, and established the notion of the great white as nature’s number one killing machine.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF JAWS

First described by Walter Bradford Cannon, the hypothalamus influences various emotional responses including the fight-or-flight response. Building on Cannon’s work, Jeffrey Alan Gray (1987) described a sequence of four defensive responses that occur depending on the organism’s proximity of danger; a) alert or vigilant immobility, b) escape, c) fighting and c) tonic immobility. While first three have been extensively studied in humans, tonic immobility has been primarily investigated in animal models.

Once thought to be nature’s apex predator, the numbers of great white sharks have diminished in recent years. There have been increasing reports of pods of killer whales hunting great whites utilizing tonic immobility by turning the shark on its dorsum. The shark then enters a natural state of paralysis and may remain in this state for up to 15 minutes. Tonic immobility is a limbic system function that therefore serves as an animal model for dissociative-like symptoms experienced in the anxiety, trauma- and stressor-related disorders including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Much like a zombie apocalypse serving as a backdrop to the Romerian group dynamic, the rogue great white shark attacks are the setting for the film’s main characters to interact. Brody has a past psychiatric history significant for specific phobia, natural environment type (irrational fear of the water), and acts to mediate the conflict between Hooper and Quint, both of whom have histories of prior trauma. Hooper has an experience with a thresher shark that “ate his boat” when he was a young boy. Quint also shared his encounter with a thresher’s tail when he shows Hooper a scar on his right leg. Right after, Brody points out a tattoo on Quint’s left arm of the USS Indianapolis, marking Quint as a survivor of the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the US Navy. Quint relates the story of the ship that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Of the 900-11,000 men who entered the water, only 317 survived; largely the result of the largest shark frenzy in recorded history (probably the oceanic white tip).

Despite having past traumatic experiences, both Hooper and Quint chose careers at sea. This likely represents their employing denial, and developing a counterphobic attitude (Otto Fenichel) that results in them running towards (instead of avoidance/away from) their fear. The final line of the movie, “I used to hate the water…I can’t imagine why,” illustrates the effect of flooding in extinguishing the learned (avoidant) behavior. Of course ‘ and ironically ‘ Brody’s “therapy” takes places while the Orca is flooded after being rammed by the great fish; a reincarnation of the rogue sperm whale that sank the Essex in 1820 (inspiration for Moby-Dick).

Psycho-nicity: ‘Synchronicity’ is a Jungian term depicting the acausal connection of two or more psycho-physic phenomena. For our purposes, it serves as the root for a neologism (newly coined word), psycho-nicity; suggestions that make a movie a transcendental experience. If you have an opportunity to catch a Movies on the Beach event, make Jaws a must-see.

Last week’s movie: Wolf (1994)
Next week’s movie: The Conjuring (2013)

HALLOWEEN (1987)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Halloween begins with six-year-old Michael Myers killing his seventeen-year-old sister, Judith, on Halloween 1963. He is subsequently hospitalized at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes and returns to his hometown where he stalks the people of Haddonfield, Illinois.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF HALLOWEEN

Michael Myers serves as a case study of Conversion Disorder, a type of somatic symptom disorder. The common feature of the somatic symptom and related disorders is the presence of physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition. The symptom or deficit (e.g. mutism) is not fully explained by a) a general medical condition (e.g. aphonia), b) the direct effects of a substance or c) another mental disorder. Following the murder of his sister, Michael loses his ability to talk. Through the entire franchise which includes the original film, seven sequels and two remakes, Myers doesn’t utter a single word. There is no physical explanation for his motor deficit. His violent behavior may therefore be interpreted as non-verbal communication resulting from the defense mechanism; acting out. The film and its many reproductions are illustrations of a conversion reaction stemming from the trauma of murdering his sister.

The film is similar to other slasher movies such as Friday the 13th and Scream (52in52, 2/13/15 and 6/26/15) in that it reflects the prohibitions against “inappropriate babysitting.” Judith Meyers’s fate is the consequence of her having sex with her boyfriend when given the responsibility of supervising her younger brother (the stuff urban legends are made of). To this end, Michael is referred to as the Bogeyman throughout the film.

An interesting subplot of the film is that there are multiple references made to deviant sexual behaviors (paraphilias). When Michael first returns to Haddonfield, he stalks Laurie Strode. Stalking is a variant of voyeurism/voyeuristic disorder. While its motivation (sexual fantasies or urges) is unclear, Michael’s stalking behavior clearly results in Laurie’s mental distress. Later in the movie, Tommie hides behind the curtains to scare Lindsay www.sites.google.com/view/freemusicallyfollowers when he sees Michael across the street carrying the body of his dead sister. The scene has voyeuristic undertones, and is similar to movies depicting peeping toms as key eyewitnesses to murder (Disturbia, Mr. Brooks, The Burbs). In another early scene, a reference is made to an obscene phone call. Telephone scatologia is a variant of exhibitionism/exhibitionistic disorder which centers on the need to expose one’s genitals to other people (typically strangers caught off guard) in order to achieve sexual satisfaction. With this subversive context, it’s no mistake that the sexually-inhibited Laurie is the only teenager to survive Michael Meyers’ vengeful rampage.

Last week’s movie: The Crazies (2010)
Next week’s movie: You’re Next (2011)

YOU’RE NEXT (2011)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

You’re Next is a black comedy set in an isolated location in Missouri. The plot is similar to Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (1965), the film adaptation of which focuses on ten people invited to a remote location by a mysterious stranger (with Christie’s isolated snowy mountain exchanged for an a cabin estate in the woods). The movies’ shared plots revolve around a series of murders from an unknown assailant(s). You’re Next demonstrates uber-dysfunctional family dynamics from its earliest scene to disclosure of the mystery assailants.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF YOU’RE NEXT

The movie begins with 2 murders at a neighboring estate by unknown assailants while “Looking for the Magic” plays in the background (Dwight Twilley Band). After witnessing the cold blooded murders, we meet the Davisons as each member arrives at a family reunion at their Missouri vacation house. The cold, uneasy interaction of the siblings continues around the dinner table when discord erupts, serving as the prelude to the first kill when Aimee’s (youngest sibling) boyfriend, Tariq, is struck by an arrow. In an attempt to secure safety, Aimee regresses, “You never give me any credit for anything…you don’t believe in me,” and convinces her family that “she’s the fastest” who can reach the car and go for help. Her escape attempt ends in her running into a garrote wire outside of the front door.

With 2 “loved ones” dead, the rest of the party must band together to protect themselves from the assassins cloaked in sheep, tiger, and lamb masks. The doll-faced killers’ sinister motives are strangely balanced by the abnormal behavior of those they hunt as evidenced by Zee intimately telling Felix, “I wanna f* you on this bed next to your dead mom.” The universal fear of masked faces, depicted as “doll’ in Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the how to view private instagram profiles without following no survey Woods (2012), is symbolic of the hidden agenda of “the protagonists.” The specific phobia of dolls, formerly known as pediophobia, is a universal experience that likely has its roots in childhood animism. Jean Piaget posited that a child’s cognitive inability to distinguish the external from the internal world results from animism. While it’s developmentally appropriate for a child at the pre-operational stage (2-7 years) of cognitive development to believe her doll is angry, such would not be the case for the Davison children. Yet, adults universally retain memories of “their maleficent dolls,” which is why movies such as You’re Next resonate with our most primitive archetypal fears.

Crispian’s girlfriend, Erin is identified as having been raised on a survivalist compound, and becomes the leader of the hunted. Her heroics however come at a price, reminding us that even the most peerless women and men who serve and protect are at risk for post-traumatic stress. One of the more defining scenes -“Death by Blender” – exemplifies this [Spoiler Alert] when Erin demonstrates flat and isolated affect when she reveals to Crispian that she killed Felix, “I stuck a blender in his head and killed him.”

Last week’s movie: Halloween (1978)
Next week’s movie: Near Dark (1987)

NEAR DARK (1987)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Near Dark is a 1987 “hillbilly vampire” movie (Rosenbaum J, 2009)that follows Caleb Colton in a small Kansas town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic undead. The movie is about Caleb’s struggle separating from his family, and serves as a case study of the moral development of a conflicted teenager.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NEAR DARK

While Near Dark aims to depart from other 1980s vampire movies such as Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987), its central character is nonetheless a vampire, the apex predator. Inspired by Lord Byron’s Fragment of a Novel (1819), John William Polidori, a physician, conceived the vampire in his novella, The Vampyre; a Tale. Polidori’s creation, Lord Ruthven (also referenced in Byzantium, 2012), depicts a blatant disregard for and violation of other’s rights, cardinal features of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD).

Building on Polidori’s precept, Abraham “Bram” Stoker was further inspired by texts such as An Extraordinary and Shocking History of a Great Berserker Called Prince Dracula in creating Dracula in 1897. The Count’s imprisoning Jonathan Harker is further testament to the vampire serving as a metaphor for APD. In Near Dark, the gang’s feeding frenzies depict the Freudian id guided by the pleasure principle. Their biological drive to feed is the basic Maslowian need (“A Theory of Human Motivation,” 1943), and conflicts with Caleb’s love and compassion for his sister, Sarah.

Scenes in Near Dark also reveal how horses react when approached by vampires. Such scenes underscore that horses are prey animals with “coherent” heart rates. Since their heart’s electromagnetic field (torus) is 5x that of humans, horses’ heart rates mimic humans’ who are in close proximity. The end product of these dynamics is that horses are exquisitely sensitive to human’s non-verbal communications. While vampire movies demonstrate this by having horses buck, universities such as Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School utilize horses to teach students and residents about non-verbal communication and bedside manners (http://www.springreinsofhope.com/about/capraBio.php).

Last week’s movie: You’re Next (2011)
Next week’s movie: Children of the Corn (1984)

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)

Posted on by

SYNOPSIS

Close Encounters of the Third Kind depicts the events of Roy Neary, an electrical lineman, who experiences an irresistible impulse to visit an isolated area that he receives in a vision after an encounter with UFOs. In planning our 52in52 itinerary, I should have visited Wyoming before Montana (Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, 1998) to have remained loyal to J. Allen Hynek’s classification of close encounters with aliens. In ufology, the 3rd kind of encounter is defined when an animated creature is present while the 4th kind is an event in which a human is abducted as the McPhersons were in Week 12.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)

Two iconic monsters that represent our culture’s fear of the unknown are the Zombie and Alien Beast. While zombies relate to Mood Disorders (but we’ll have to wait 2 weeks for The Crazies), this week’s film highlights aliens and their role in reviewing Bipolar and Related Disorders.

We are first introduced to Roy Neary and his family around the dinner table during a discussion of their planning a family event. Roy’s insistence on seeing Pinocchio is characterized by irritability and verbally abusive language. While we aren’t provided a recent history that allows us to determine if his behavior is a change from previous functioning, the events that will unfold will frame this early scene as a prodrome to bipolar illness.

Following a close encounter with UFOs (rule-out perceptual disturbance) while in his truck, Roy’s behavior becomes erratic, and results in significant impairment in interpersonal (his wife and children leave him) and occupational (he is fired from his job) functioning. Initially, he becomes obsessed with a vision he receives. His belief that he must visit an isolated area in the wilderness to see something spectacular becomes fixed. His grandiose delusion is initially mood-incongruent when he experiences a major depressive episode culminating in his crying inconsolably in the shower. Thereafter, Roy switches to the opposite pole and manifests grandiosity, a decreased need for sleep, pressured speech, and an increase in goal-directed activity in constructing an 8-foot replica of Devil’s Tower in his living room (the precipitant for his wife leaving him).

It is unclear to the audience if the people Roy meets who confirm his reality are themselves products of his own mind. When such is the case in film, it’s interesting to uncover aspects of the movie that are physically impossible, therefore supporting the notion that only in one’s mind can the events be explained.

Type I error: Supporting a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder
Type I error (interestingly called error of the first kind) is the conclusion that a supposed effect exists when in fact it doesn’t. In the climactic scene at the end of the movie, the alien mothership flies over Devil’s Tower. We see the ship’s shadow creeping along the ground despite the fact that there’s no light source above the ship. Similarly, when the brightly lit alien mothership passes directly over Devil’s Tower, the rock formation remains dark despite having the leviathan light source directly above.

Type II error (almost): Supporting a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder
Type II error (interestingly called error of the second kind) is the conclusion that something does not exist when in fact it does. For example, Roy’s joining the aliens is critical in realizing that his behavior is significantly impacted by his delusions. Despite this, Spielberg has expressed that if he were to make the movie over again, he would delete this scene. Additionally, Spielberg intended to cut the entire manic (garden) episode from the Special Edition despite it arguably being the most defining scene in the movie.

Last week’s movie: Carnival of Souls (1962)
Next week’s movie: Badlands (1973)