Movie Diagnosis: Silver Linings Playbook

By Ella Herrewig

In the Movie “Silver Linings Playbook,” Bradley Cooper plays Patrizio (Pat) Solintano,
who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Throughout the movie there are many episodes where
Pat shows mood swings of anger, excitement, happiness, sadness, and almost every other
emotion you can imagine. The film was released in 2012 and is a drama/romance film, directed
by David O. Russell. The movie takes place in Pennsylvania, where Pat grew up and after he is
released from the psychiatric hospital, he is determined to get back together with his ex-wife.
The reason for their separation was due to Pat’s mood swings, as well his wife cheating on him.
During the movie Pat meets a women named Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence. After
spending a lot of time together, their love hate relationship turns into Pat confessing his love for
her at the end of the movie and him getting over his ex-wife.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Pat was diagnosed with bipolar disorder which
causes him many difficulties in his life. Bipolar disorder is a disorder that is characterized by
frequent occurring manic and hypomanic episodes. In these episodes someone may experience
high energy, excitement, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and any other emotion one could think of.
Treatment for bipolar disorder includes medication like mood stabilizers, antipsychotics,
antidepressants, antianxiety, and so on. These medications can control symptoms, but can have
some negative side effects to the patient, such as fatigue, dizziness, headaches, confusion,
changes in behavior, muscle spasms, and seizures. In the film Pat didn’t want to take the
medication as he felt it did him more harm than good, as he constantly would feel sick, and it
would still affect his behaviour poorly.

In the United States, there is a 4.4% of adults who have been diagnosed with bipolar
disorder, and it is roughly the same rate between men and women, with men have a slightly
higher chance of it. In children there is a 3% of the population with this disorder, with the
chances of having it at 10% and growing to 40% by the time they are an adult.
 As mentioned earlier, there is a series of events where Pat shows the symptoms of having
bipolar disorder. One of the first scenes of the movie when Pat’s mom is driving him and his
friend home from the psychiatric hospital, and the hospital calls his mom and tells her that Pat’s
friend was never released. Pat then gets into an argument with her and steers the car off the road
and almost gets into an accident. The was the first appearance of Pat’s disorder as he went from a
very calm mood to extremely angry. The next time his disorder was shown was the first night he
was back at home and was reading a book. He got very angry with it and threw it out the
window, breaking that window. He follows this with going into his parent’s room yelling and
acting manic. The following day Pat goes to therapy and within his first few minutes there, he
has another episode, where he hears a song that played at his wedding, and it triggers him. He
starts by yelling at the receptionists, and then throwing magazines around the room.

A big scene that occurred in the Silver Linings Playbook was when there is a flashback
from Pat’s marriage. He had accused his wife and a teacher at the school of embezzling money
from the school and was using it against him, but later realized it was a delusion. A few weeks
after this delusion he came home to his wife cheating on him with that same teacher. He got so
angry he almost beat the man to death, including strangling him with the shower chord and
beating his head into the ground. This act caused him to go to jail and then after jail he was
admitted into the psychiatric hospital, where they diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. This
scene was a big example of his disorder and showed how severe his symptoms had become with
uncontrollable mood swings.

There were a few other scenes that demonstrated his disorder including Pat running to the
school begging for his job back and then screaming at the lady because she told him he could not
have the job. Another example is when his dad was on the phone and Pat went from a calm state
to very overwhelmed and started crying. The last major scene that occurred in the film was
during the night when he started to get angry and then lost control of his emotions. Pat started
ripping things off walls in his house because his mom wouldn’t give him the tape from his
wedding. This made pat extremely angry, and the neighbourhood soon became aware of his
episode and the cops were called. During this episode he started physically fighting his dad and
elbowing his mom in the face. Pat lost control of himself, and this resulted in his mood swings
being uncontrollable, and once again people getting hurt from his mood swings.

This film allowed me to see and understand bipolar disorders better. The severity of this
disorder is very significant and detrimental to the patient’s life, as well those around them. As
someone who previously lived with a parent who has bipolar disorders, it really reminded me of
my childhood. It also allowed me to view the disorder from a different perspective and realize
how much it impacts those around that person, and how scary it can be because you never know
what emotion or action resulting from that emotion is going to come next. In conclusion, this
film taught me a lot about the disorder and opened my eyes to the severity of it.