UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE NUEVO LEON

FACULTAD DE PSICOLOGIA

COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA EN INGLES

ALUMNO: JUAN ANGEL TREVIÑO GARCIA

MATRICULA: 2036127
6TO SEMESTRE GPO: 008

13/9/2022
 Going deeper into my favorite movie
Shutter island

Shutter island, is a movie released on April 15, 2003, starring the great actor
Leonardo Di Caprio, who plays Teddy Daniels, a Federal Agent, or so we are led to
believe...
As a small introduction and to give context about the movie:
The story begins when two Federal Agents, Chuck and Teddy, are on their way to
Ashecliffe Psychiatric Hospital where criminals declared mentally unstable for
society and justice, therefore, they must serve their prison sentence there, the
objective of the Agents is to investigate a strange disappearance.
Shutter Island is a film that, due to its subject matter and plot twists, may or may
not please those who see it. But regardless of this throughout the film we can
observe different psychological or psychiatric elements that have been working
throughout the film and even that are the basis of its plot.
The film is set in the 1950s, a turbulent time for psychiatry. This is because it was
during this decade and the following one that the so-called psychiatric revolution
originated, after an arduous "war" (mentioned directly in the film) in which two
opposing currents confronted each other. Until this time, people with severe mental
disorders were locked up and isolated in psychiatric institutions, also known as
asylums, where they were treated as prisoners and isolated from the world and
from normal life. In these institutions, patients were treated with controversial
procedures such as insulin coma, electroconvulsions or ablation of parts of the
brain as in the case of lobotomy. As a reaction to this type of treatment and to the
social exclusion and annulment of the patients, anti-psychiatry was born, which
advocated a greater use of psychotherapy and the abolition of practices such as
those mentioned above.
The prolonged confrontation between the two positions would end with the
confluence of both in a new psychiatry, more focused on the search for the
normalization of the patient's life. The consequence was the closure of most
psychiatric institutions (a process known as deinstitutionalization) and the search
for another approach to the treatment of disorders, such as pharmacological
treatments, ceasing the application of most of the controversial medical therapies
of the time and restricting them to cases of great severity that could not be solved
in any other way.
Peering into the mind of Andrew Laeddis: his disorders.
As we have been able to see, throughout the story it is reflected how the character
played by Leonardo DiCaprio suffers from some kind of mental disorder.
It is important to keep in mind that we only know a part of the disorder that
torments the protagonist, as well as the fact that generally mental disorders do not
occur in a pure state, but contain characteristics of other disorders. A proper
examination of the patient would be necessary to be able to determine more
accurately the disorder he/she is suffering from, although it is possible through the
symptoms shown to get an idea of the problems in question.
From the symptoms that are reflected throughout the history it is possible to
suspect the presence of a post-traumatic stress disorder. The fact of having been
exposed to traumatic events that have caused a deep emotional distress, the re-
experiencing in the form of flashbacks and dreams, the dissociation of his
personality and the difficulties of sleep and concentration that are seen throughout
the film correspond to this type of disorder. Also, the fact that the mental disorder is
linked to a specific event seems to indicate post-traumatic stress disorder as one of
the most likely diagnoses.
At the end of the movie when you think you've arrived to the truth and that
everything is as your head and Teddy's had thought BOOM! You even feel
disappointed and desperate because the movie makes you part of that
investigation and that paranoia, you practically feel what Teddy feels and when he
receives the explanation of who he is he refuses to accept it, and you as a viewer
too, because then what has been all that you have lived during the movie? Where
are your feelings? Your sanity? You feel crazy too, and is it really going to end like
this? Well yes, it ends like that, seeing how Teddy, whom we accompany with all
our confidence to discover the truth that the hospital was plotting something bad,
because even you were sure of it, that the crazy ones were the doctors and
hospital workers, and it is Teddy who accepts that he is indeed that patient named
Andrew, you even feel betrayed by Teddy.