Shutter Island Psychological In-Depth Movie Review: Mental Disorders Of The Main Character

Shutter Island is a mind-twisting rollercoaster that was written by Dennis Lehane and then put on the silver screen. This movie interpretation does me no justice for putting it into words. Teddy Daniel (DiCaprio) is on a case with his new partner Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) are both sent to shutter island to investigate a patient you the name of Rachel who escaped the day before. As soon as they get on the island you get a feeling that something is not right.

Dr. Crawley shows them Rachel’s room where we see no sign of escape. Teddy begins to interrogate the staff as well as the patients but it seems that she disappeared into thin air? After the interrogations, teddy and chuck search the island with the security guards. After the storm starts to roll in teddy and chuck go and visit Dr.Crawley in his office which where we meet another doctor who does lobotomy’s and Dr. Crawley discusses methods to fix or help cure the patient's mental disorders which is why the lighthouse signifies where they perform lobotomy’s.

Get quality help now
Doctor Jennifer
Doctor Jennifer
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Film Analysis

star star star star 5 (893)

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

Throughout the movie we see the vivid reality in which Teddy lives in. This paper will examine how a mind-twisting thriller movie can portray an actual psychological disorder. As well we’ll see if they were portrayed correctly and if there was any form of treatment and what could’ve been done to help Teddy out.

Throughout the movie the main character suffers from Delusional disorder and most likely PTSD from the war.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

As we learn throughout the film that Andrew was admitted to the island 2 years ago and that was the last time that they could try to help him before they lobotomized him. Which in the end we can see that he was conscious when he made that comment to his partner “chuck” that this plan did work yet he still got a lobotomy. He developed this disorder because his wife drowned their three kids and he then shot his wife. So instead of moving on he created a character, backstory, and a fake story. Teddy’s wife Dolores was insane, manic-depressive suicidal. Dolores was suffering from bipolar disorder which drove her to the point of killing all three of her kids and telling Teddy that they should have them as dolls.

The movie portrayed the disorder in a way that we can understand what the character feels and what he sees as true and false. Although the movie left on a mind twist because he could’ve been right about his what his brain was telling him to believe or that he could’ve been just messed up in the head because of what his wife did to their children and what he did to his wife. The movie does do this disorder some justice by enlightening the audience of what, how, why this happens and it does talk about what the psychologist might’ve done to help cure or fix their mental illnesses. Although teddy didn’t think he had a problem but instead thought that they had drugged him with the cigarettes and aspirin that he took and consumed as told by “Rachel” that he met in a cave by the cliff. This does occur in some cases of delusional disorder where some patients will either refuse help or treatment and believe their story then hear the truth which is what happened in the lighthouse when teddy was confronted by Dr. Crawley and his psychiatrist Chuck. For example, a 45 yr old man who served in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan began to be hostile towards his relatives because he saw ghosts and spirits that were trying to drop a strange substance from his ceiling and that one of the apparitions fornicated with his wife and so he began to carry loaded weapons to protect himself (Riggs, S., Perry, T., Dowben, J., & Burson, R, 2017). Teddy’s wife Dolores was suffering from bipolar disorder which we didn’t get her whole back story we can assume that she had this at a young age or if she developed it later on in her life. Dolores isn’t discussed much throughout the movie but we’re told that she set Teddy’s apartment on fire and that she drowned her three children in the lake. When Andrew is being asked about why he was sent to the institution he says that he shot his wife and says that she attempted to commit suicide the first time and that she told him that she felt an insect moving inside her skull pulling the wires just for fun. Andrew feels guilty for killing his kids because he didn’t pay attention to her mental problems and that he didn’t get her help. In the medical room, Dr. Cawley tells Andrew that he relapsed nine months ago and that he’s like a tape playing over and over. Which does happen in some cases of delusional disorder.

At the beginning of the film, we see Teddy experiencing seasickness when he’s on the boat on its way to the island. Later on, we see Teddy have headaches in Dr. Crawley gives him aspirin to alleviate the pain. During the storm, his suit gets drenched which the orderly gives him spare clothes and the orderly tells him that his cigarettes were spoiled from the rain so he gives him two new packs from the island. Which later we find out that these products might’ve been tainted with a drug. Dr. Crawley said earlier in the scene where he discusses treating patients with drugs and if none of those work then the final solution would be a trans-orbital lobotomy. The aspirin did help him out alleviate his migraines. Although towards the end of the movie Teddy finds out that he’s been there for 2 years. Dr Crawley confronts teddy and tells him that he wasn’t being drugged but that he was suffering from withdrawal. He was experiencing tremors, migraines, hallucinations which Chlorpromazine helped out Teddy because the medication acted as an antipsychotic. Dr. Crawley explains to Teddy that he hasn’t been on the drug for 24 months now. This is why he has trouble coming to reality and doesn’t remember his primary psychiatrist. The drugs could hurt his view of what is real and what is not. Many cases of patients with schizophrenia or delusional disorder were prescribed an antipsychotic or anti-cholinergic (Canavan, M., Sipsma, H., Jack, H., Ohene, S., Rohrbaugh, R., Bradley, E., & Ofori-Atta, A. (2016). Antipsychotics can work but can have different results and effects on males and females and depends on their age and severity of the disorder.

Works cited

  1. Lehane, D. (2003). Shutter Island. HarperCollins.
  2. Scorsese, M. (Director). (2010). Shutter Island [Motion picture]. Paramount Pictures.
  3. Riggs, S., Perry, T., Dowben, J., & Burson, R. (2017). Delusional disorder. Psychiatry, 70(6), 312-321.
  4. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
  5. Kaplan, H. I., & Sadock, B. J. (2017). Synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry. Wolters Kluwer.
  6. Kumar, A., & Das, S. (2019). Delusional disorder: an overview. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 41(1), 23–27.
  7. Dhikav, V., & Aggarwal, N. (2018). Shutter Island and Delusional Disorder: A Review. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 40(2), 197–198.
  8. Johansson, V., Lundh, L. G., Wikberg, C., & Sandberg, G. (2018). Perception of stress and sense of coherence in delusional disorder. Psychiatry research, 259, 389–394.
  9. Nordgaard, J., Arnfred, S. M., Handest, P., & Parnas, J. (2016). The diagnostic status of first-rank symptoms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42(2), 432-442.
  10. Weinstock, R. (2011). Shutter Island: Psychological diagnosis and treatment. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 49(3), 34-41.
Updated: Feb 02, 2024
Cite this page

Shutter Island Psychological In-Depth Movie Review: Mental Disorders Of The Main Character. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/shutter-island-psychological-in-depth-movie-review-mental-disorders-of-the-main-character-essay

Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment