Tarnation
Plot Summary:
This is a self-portrait documentary about Jon’s life
struggles with his own depersonalization disorder and with his mother’s, Renee,
bipolar and schizophrenia. This film analysis is, however, focused on Renee,
whose life started out as a beautiful child model. After she fell off from the
roof, she is never the same again. She is subjected to hundreds of shock
therapy in which Jon believe to be unnecessary and damaging treatment that
cause his mother mental illness. Tarnation well illustrates those effects of
the brain damage, traumatic abuse, and her current schizoaffective disorder.
Disorder:
Schizoaffective disorder involves the symptoms of
schizophrenia and a mood disorder. It is a subtype of schizophrenia—a psychotic
disorder in which disturbed thought processes, distorted perceptions, unusual
emotions, and motor abnormalities deteriorates functioning (Comer, 2010) . Common symptoms
include delusion, hallucination, and other disturbances in thought, perception
and behavior, inappropriate affect, blunt and flat emotion, and impaired social
skills (Student Notes).
From the movie, Renee is delusional,
for examples, she believed that her parents were not her real parents and that
Elizabeth Taylor was her mother. She also believed that she was physically
abused as a child. She believed that her parents, Rosemary and Adolph, are
psychotic, neurotic, schizophrenic, and that they lock her up in the closet for
days and whip her. Also, she had disorganized thinking speech clearly shown in
the illogical and peculiar conversation with the husband. Moreover, lithium is
a mood stabilizing drug that serves as a treatment for bipolar disorder. The
fact that she had lithium overdose suggests that she is also bipolar. People
with bipolar disorder experience both the high of mania and the crash of
depression. Manic period could be depicted, for example, when she has decreased
need for sleep, increased energy, the mood of exaggerated joy, more talks,
laughter, and self-understood jokes than usual (with the pumpkin and other
objects), and racing thoughts and experiences. It is possible that she knew her
cycle and that she went back to the hospital before she was depressed. This
confirms me that she has a schizoaffective disorder that involves schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder.
Causes:
Biological – (1) Renee
could inherit that biological predisposition to schizophrenic and develop the
disorder later after facing the extreme stressors of shock therapy, rape,
marital abuse, extended stays in mental hospital. (2) Moreover, schizophrenia
is related to biochemical factor. She could have abnormal activity or interactions
of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.
Psychodynamic – According
to Freud, schizophrenic develops from the regression to a pre-ego stage and
effort to reestablish ego control (Comer, 2010) .
Behavioral – It
could be the result of faulty learning. Renee could receive very little
reinforcement as a child and pay more attention to irrelevant matters. From
there, her behavior appears abnormal. In mental institution, she could have
been labeled in this way and may act accordingly to that label. Abnormal
behaviors may be rewards by sympathy and attention, resulting in reinforcement
and eventually are labeled as schizophrenic.
Cognitive – People
develop delusional thinking when they try to understand their unusual
experiences, strange biological sensation. Renee could start with experiencing
some kind of hallucination as a result from biological sensation, and later try
to understand and make sense of those strange sensations, and eventually develop
into misinterpretations and delusion that she is being persecuted.
Treatment:
Biological –
Antipsychotic with antidepressant for depressed schizoaffective
patients or with mood-stabilizing drug (Lithium) for the manic.
Psychotherapy – Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for schizophrenia is to guide patients to
more accurate interpretation of their experiences.
Family & Social Therapy can also be very effective. People with schizoaffective disorder can
actually discuss with others their real-life problem.
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