Analysis of Psychological Disorders Depicted in Film

This report analyzes the film 'Lars and the Real Girl,' focusing on the depiction of psychological disorders, specifically schizoid personality disorder and social anxiety. The assignment explores the protagonist's social isolation and the development of a unique relationship with a sex doll, Bianca. The analysis delves into the character's background, including the loss of his mother and strained relationships with his father and brother, highlighting the impact of loneliness and lack of social interaction. The report discusses the town's reaction to Lars's condition, his interaction with a psychiatrist, and the eventual resolution. The analysis emphasizes the film's portrayal of the causes and effects of social anxiety and loneliness, as well as the potential for recovery and the importance of social support. The report uses references from journals and articles to support its analysis.

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AS DEPICTED IN FILMS
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AS DEPICTED IN FILMS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AS DEPICTED IN FILMS
Film Assignment
The film, Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007) is a film about a man who
had spent a major proportion of his life alone. His mother had passed away at childbirth and
since then, his father has remained in a state of depression until his last breath. It stars
popular actors like Ryan Gosling in the lead against Emily Mortimer, besides Paul Schneider,
Kelli Garner, and Patricia Clarkson (Journals.sagepub.com, 2019). Lars is a sweet but a
socially awkward youth. Interestingly, he develops a platonic yet romantic relationship with a
sex doll, known as Bianca, a real doll. The film, Lars and the Real Girl, written by Nancy
Oliver and depicts a unique story.
Lars has a life that is secluded and resides in the small town of Wisconsin. The film
gradually unveils that he lost his mother at the time of his birth. This distanced his father,
stricken with grief and his brother, Gus, away from him. Gus leaves the town only to return
for the other half of his share in the property. Lars social anxiety pops out when Karin, Gus’
pregnant wife persuades on an invite for a family meal but remains unsuccessful to convince
Lars. He avoids social contact to a level where family members, co-workers and even
members of the Church find it difficult to communicate with Lars, he being equally awkward
on the other side. Though a co-worker, Margo, takes interest in him, he avoids everything but
brief encounters.
Then, one day, comes a huge parcel. Lars informs everyone that someone has come to
meet him, a visitor he met over the internet. To everyone’s utter amazement, they discover
none but Bianca, a life size doll (Ratcliffe & Wilkinson, 2016). Lars had himself ordered the
doll online, from a website. Lars’ sickness and mental condition is clear to everyone by now
and they advise to seek help from a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist seems to be a family doctor,
who asks Lars to bring Bianca for checkup every now and then, as she is diagnosed with a

2PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AS DEPICTED IN FILMS
low blood pressure. The psychiatrist, named Dagmar, asks his family to behave as if Bianca
was a real girl. It was only then that the root cause of his underlying problems receives the
appropriate treatment. It was so because this would help her to identify the underlying
problems in Lars and treat him accordingly besides helping the patient (Freeman et al., 2015).
The implication of this action was that Lars began to introduce Bianca to the town as his
girlfriend. On the other hand, Margo starts to date another man, which silently bothers Lars.
Now, Lars starts communicating more with all the people around him. Even Gus and Lars
strike a good relationship where they realize on how they were now grown up and discuss all
things shareable. This soon reduces Lars’ dependency on Bianca. Gus is guilty and realizes
how he had moved away from Lars at a delicate age. Lars would not have been in such a
situation had he been there. His loneliness and lack of parental association caused him to be
in such a situation as this.
At this very juncture, Lars becomes close to Margo, who informs her that she had
recently broken up with her boyfriend. She tries to invite Lars but he turns that down and
moves on. However, in some time, Lars realizes his love for Margo and the reality of Bianca.
The hazy fog clears out and eventually, Bianca receives a good funeral. This depicts that Lars
was socially awkward, which persuaded to the development of him as a schizoid person
(Margaret Jordan, 2019).
Thus, this film discovers how social anxiety and loneliness can succumb a person to
such situations. Extreme loneliness and tough emotional phases over the years can push a
person to developing situations of schizophrenia where the nerves respond illogically and the
neurotransmitters misbehave. What one appears to imagine becomes what he or she actually
observes, giving rise to further trauma and difficult situations. The brain functioning is
heavily tormented in such situations and overthinking may simply add to worsening of the

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situation. Timely medications with parental or family support can out do such situation
though complete eradication is difficult when the cause is genetic.

4PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AS DEPICTED IN FILMS
References
Freeman, D., Waller, H., Harpur-Lewis, R. A., Moore, R., Garety, P., Bebbington, P., ... &
Jolley, S. (2015). Urbanicity, persecutory delusions, and clinical intervention: the
development of a brief CBT module for helping patients with persecutory delusions
enter social urban environments. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 43(1), 42-
51.
Journals.sagepub.com. (2019). Retrieved 12 August 2019, from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244011408346
Margaret Jordan, P. (2019). A Psychoanalytic Look at "Lars and the Real Girl." Retrieved 12
August 2019, from https://www.cgjungpage.org/learn/articles/film-reviews/917-a-
psychoanalytic-look-at-qlars-and-the-real-girlq
Ratcliffe, M., & Wilkinson, S. (2016). How anxiety induces verbal hallucinations.
Consciousness and cognition, 39, 48-58.