Читать книгу Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A Case Study of the Movie Classic TAXI DRIVER - Francine R Goldberg PhD - Страница 4

With the movie, TAXI DRIVER, Martin Scorsese and Columbia Pictures provide an opportunity to learn about schizotypal personality disorder (STPD).

This disorder is included in the range of conditions from those with milder symptoms, i.e., schizotypal and schizoid personality disorders, to the most severe forms of schizophrenia, known as the schizophrenia spectrum. It is a disease of the brain that involves mostly negative and cognitive symptoms such as, discomfort with or incapacity for social relations, apparent indifference to others, and emotional inexpressiveness . STPD also implies eccentric to bizarre beliefs, habits, and appearance. This disorder may look similar to earliest stages of schizophrenia, prior to the first psychotic break and probably reflects a similar hereditary vulnerability (with variably interrelating genes or environmental influences) (Harvard MHL, 2006, p. 20). STPD has a relatively stable course, with only a small proportion of individuals going on to develop schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder. Its prevalence has been reported to occur in approximately 3% of the general population (APA, 2000, p. 699).

STPD is grouped with paranoid personality disorder and schizoid personality disorder to comprise the “odd or eccentric cluster” in the DSM-IV-TR. It first appeared in DSM-III to be distinct from (1) borderline personality disorder, which had originally been too broad in its inclusion of affective instability and schizophrenic-like symptoms and (2) schizoid personality disorder which had been broadly defined to characterize individuals with enduring psychotic-like symptoms (Sperry, 2003, p.239).

This guide will assist the reader, while viewing the movie, in learning about this illness and its effect on people who have it.

To make the best use of this guide:

1.VIEW THE FILM IN ITS ENTIRETY, then

2.READ THE GUIDE, SECTION BY SECTION, AS YOU REVIEW THE CORRESPONDING SCENE FROM THE FILM.