The portrayal of psychosis-related disorders in Shutter Island

Manav Sharma

The portrayal of psychosis-related disorders in Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese’s movie, Shutter Island released in 2010, portrays a chilling narrative of two US marshals, Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, who were taken to a secluded island asylum to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy tries to find a disturbing reality about the mental facility. In common pop culture, Teddy is believed to show symptoms of schizophrenia. However, towards the end of the movie, it’s revealed that Teddy showed symptoms of a psychotic disorder, namely delusional disorder as opposed to schizophrenia.  This only proceeds to comment on the ignorance around various other psychosis-related disorders. Teddy displayed features of Grandiose and Persecutory Delusional Disorder in the movie. However, this does not become apparent until the end of the movie when the main psychiatrist debriefs Teddy about how his dysfunctional and deviant behaviour was caused due to withdrawal from Chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic drug.

The portrayal of Teddy Daniels’ Delusional Disorder was more or less accurate. Contrary to popular opinion, Teddy didn’t have Schizophrenia as he didn’t meet Criterion A for schizophrenia i.e., one could not see the symptoms of flat inappropriate affect in Teddy throughout the movie. On the other hand, he showed the symptoms of Grandiose and Persecutory type of delusional disorder (American Psychological Association, 2013). Teddy considers himself to be a special US marshal with privileged access to the psychiatric hospital. According to him, people should follow his orders. Moreover, he constantly believes that the hospital staff, and primarily the main psychiatrist, are attempting to control him by administering drugs i.e., Teddy believes that the mental institution's personnel are attempting to commit him as a patient by giving him medications through cigarettes and headache pain reliever medications. Throughout the movie, his beliefs are characterised by the delusion of persecution and grandeur. People with Delusional Disorder, including Teddy, experience full periods of remission but it’s subsequently followed by relapses which was also depicted in the movie where Teddy showed a relapse due to withdrawal of an antipsychotic drug. The very fact that people misattribute it as schizophrenia is reflective of the general public’s perception of psychotic disorders. Anything ‘bizarre’ portrayed in the visual media comes to be associated with schizophrenia due to the extreme nature of the symptoms that can be manifested in the same. It also goes to comment on the lack of awareness and marginalisation surrounding other psychosis-related disorders. Furthermore, this also enables the commercialisation and exploitation of schizophrenia and its related symptoms in popular media. Although it’s not the case in this movie, sometimes, it also further leads to the wrong portrayal of schizophrenia and other psychosis-related disorders.

In addition to that, Shutter Island, set in the 1950s, depicts the reality of the situation of mental institutions during that time where Electroconvulsive Therapy and Lobotomy were prevalent methods that were employed to ‘cure’ psychosis-related disorders. The movie does a splendid job of accurately portraying the observed significant change in the methodology and treatment in clinical psychology and how psychosis-related disorders are treated. There has been a shift from the usage of the aforementioned medical practices to the usage of psychotropic drugs.

Moreover, the movie also insinuates that Teddy Daniels ended up murdering his wife (who supposedly had a mood disorder) after she killed their children. Moreover, he was shown to have violent tendencies throughout the movie. This portrays psychotic disorders in a negative light where these disorders are attributed to violence i.e., the movie reinforces the already existing stereotypes regarding people who have been diagnosed with psychosis-related disorders and mental illnesses in large are violent in nature. This is really detrimental to people who suffer from them as it makes the seeking help process difficult due to the attached stigma and stereotypes.

While the movie does a splendid job of portraying delusional disorder, the usage of psychosis-related disorder in a horror or thriller trope is along with a battle that mental health professionals have been fighting for a long time. The movie has scary and eerie scenes and music that add to existing societal prejudices regarding people who have been diagnosed with psychotic disorders are dangerous. The sensationalism of mental illness, particularly delusional disorder in this case, for commercial reasons damages and undoes the work psychologists and mental health professionals have done up until now. The movie could have depicted the life of a person suffering from delusional disorder and their struggle of living in a mental health institution in 1950 and how it’s related to their delusion of persecution and grandiose as opposed to the exploitation of the same in a murder-thriller trope. They could’ve also taken real-life narratives of people suffering from psychosis. This would’ve allowed the viewers to empathise with people who have been diagnosed with the same.

 

 

References

 

American Psychological Association. (2013). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). American Psychological Association.

Scorsese, M. (Director). (2010). Shutter Island [Motion Picture].