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Running Head: SCHIZOPHRENIA IN BLACK SWAN

Schizophrenia in Black Swan Nate Howard University of Central Oklahoma

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SCHIZOPHRENIA IN BLACK SWAN

Schizophrenia in Black Swan In the 2010 film, Black Swan, ballerina Nina Sayers was chosen to be the leading role of the Swan Queen for her company’s production of Swan Lake. Nina was shown to be a perfectionist, which is why she was chosen for the role, but her director continuously pushed her to lose herself in order to truly fit the other half of her role as the Black Swan. Throughout the film, she experienced hallucinations and other phenomena that illustrate and point towards Nina having schizophrenia. Nina did meet most of the criteria for the DSM-5's diagnostics of schizophrenia. The DSM-5 states that two or more of the following symptoms must occur for a significant portion of time during a one-month period: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, or negative symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). Though it was not clear how long of a time period the film takes place in, it can be assumed that from the start to the end of the film is at least one month. Nina met three of the five criteria previously mentioned. One of the symptoms Nina portrayed was delusions. Delusions are defined as “fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence” (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). At one point, Nina believed that Lily, her alternate for the Swan Queen and Black Swan, had hostile intentions and wanted to harm Nina in order to take her place as the leading role for the performances. Nina tried to persuade her director to choose someone else to be her alternate instead of Lily because of her delusion, but she was unsuccessful. This was a

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form of persecutory delusion, which is where one believes that someone intends to harm, harass, or kill him or her. Nina also portrayed signs of grandiose delusions, which is when someone believes they have extraordinary powers or abilities. This is shown when Nina believed that she truly was the Black Swan and may fly away near the end of the film. Another symptom Nina portrayed was diminished emotional expression. This is when someone reduces their emotional expressions (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). Though she portrayed an abundance of emotion on the stage and in her dancing, Nina gradually reciprocated less and less emotions with her mother in the time leading up to the opening night of the show. Erica, Nina’s mother, frequently wanted to care for Nina and her career in dancing; they even live in the same apartment. But Nina’s gradual emotionlessness towards her causes Erica to become more aggressive. Nina locked herself in her room to avoid interacting with her mother. The most significant symptoms of schizophrenia that Nina showed were her hallucinations. Hallucinations are when someone believes they have some sort of experience or perception when it is not real. Most of her hallucinations were visual, but some scenes hint at her having auditory hallucinations and hearing voices. For the visual, Nina had mild hallucinations that gradually became more severe by the end of the film. Mild hallucinations she experienced included: her own face on strangers, a painting her mother did of herself slightly move its eyes, bumps on her skin where she plucked out black feathers, tattoos on Lily slightly moving, and hangnails being significant and painful that did not actually exist. Some of the more severe hallucinations Nina experienced included: seeing a dark version of herself while she was in the bathtub, her legs deforming backwards to resemble swan legs, sexual acts between herself and

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Lily, her own face on Lily multiple times, killing Lily and her blood running on the floor, having red eyes like a swan’s, her neck deforming while being choked to resemble a swan’s neck, and growing full wings during opening night of the show to truly become the Black Swan. Nina did not show signs of disorganized speech or grossly disorganized behavior. Other sources classify symptoms into two specific categories, and those are positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and motor disorders. Negative symptoms include reduced speaking lack of emotional expression, and reduced feeling of pleasure. In these terms, Nina portrayed mostly positive symptoms ("Schizophrenia", 2016). Schizophrenia is still somewhat a mysterious disorder. Scientists know that schizophrenia may run in families, but not everyone diagnosed with the disorder has a family history of carrying it. It is believed that certain genes have the potential to increase risk, but it is not yet known which genes. Some environmental factors may include exposure to viruses, malnutrition or other problems during birth, or psychosocial factors ("Schizophrenia", 2016). In the film, Nina’s background and history relating to seeing hallucinations or being delusional is unknown because hardly any information of Nina’s life prior to the film’s timeline is given. There was a time at which Erica mentioned how Nina was clueless and lost in ballet classes when she was four years old. Erica also mentioned how she herself was a professional dancer at one point in her life, which explains why Nina became a professional dancer, yet no information or signs were given in the film to Erica possibly having the disorder. The DSM-5 (2017) also states that the typical age range for development of schizophrenia is between adolescence and thirty years old. Nina was twenty-eight in the film, which shows that she was in

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the age range. In the film, Nina was not given any treatment for the disorder because she was never officially diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to Harvard Health Publishing (2019), there are multiple ways that schizophrenia is treated. These include medication, psychological counseling, and social support. On the medical side of things, there are numerous types of medication used to treat people with schizophrenia. The main medications used are called antipsychotics, and there are two variations of antipsychotics depending on what symptoms the person shows. Conventional antipsychotics work by blocking dopamine receptors, which affects positive symptoms. Atypical antipsychotics work by blocking serotonin and dopamine receptors, which affects both positive and negative symptoms (Brewer, "Chapter 14 Psychological Disorders", 2020). Because schizophrenia is still mostly a mysterious disorder and symptoms vary pers case, it is not always certain which type of medication would work best per person. With that, an individual may try several different types of antipsychotics before finding one that decreases symptoms (Harvard Health Publishing, "Schizophrenia", 2019). For psychological and social treatments, there are also multiple types. Psychotherapy is one type. This is where the therapist works towards building a relationship with the person, emphasizes on understanding the person’s experiences, and helps the person understand their symptoms so that they are more aware of their situation and are not as surprised by episodes. Another type is assertive community treatment. This is where a person with the disorder is frequently visited and looked after by nurses, physicians, psychiatrists, and other professionals who provide intensive care and support. One other type of treatment is family education. This is

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where the family of a person with the disorder is educated in the disorder and how to effectively support the person. It has been found that both medical and psychological treatments work best when combined (Harvard Health Publishing, "Schizophrenia", 2019). In Nina’s experiences throughout the film, her episodes made her not only paranoid, but aggressive. She was once described as a gentle and fragile person, but she embraced a darker side in order to perfect the role of the Black Swan. This is shown multiple times. For example, she bit her director’s tongue when he tried to kiss her, she has heated arguments with her mother when they used to have a very light-hearted and loving relationship, she repeatedly slammed her bedroom door on her mother’s hand, and she fought Lily in her dressing room and stabbed her with a mirror shard- this turned out to be another hallucination. These moments made Nina’s director like her even more because she was letting go of her gentle self, like he wanted her to, and conformed to her role. On the other hand, Nina’s aggression towards her mother built up walls around their relationship that tore them apart by the end of the film. There was no support system at all for Nina because no one was aware that she might have had schizophrenia. On top of this, she did not seem to have any real friends who would be willing to give her the support she may have needed. Nina Sayers’ portrayal of schizophrenia did seem to be fairly accurate to what the symptoms are described to be. She had surreal hallucinations that frightened her and made her paranoid. The fear she displayed from these hallucinations looked real and had negative impacts on her social life, specifically with her mother; however, the hallucinations were very particular to what was going on in her life at the time, which was the ballet, and they seemed to grow so intense in a short time period. The delusions Nina had that she was becoming the Black Swan

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were also somewhat unrealistic. Most delusions, specifically grandiose delusions, tend to harm a person and what they do because of the beliefs they have about themselves. Nina’s delusions about herself probably would have caused the performance to end in a disaster, yet they helped her perform to the absolute best of her ability and made the audience as well as her fellow cast members love her even more. Overall, I found the film to be quite enjoyable because I love both the arts and a good thriller. On the portrayal of schizophrenia, I think the filmmakers did a good job at conveying the seriousness of it and how difficult and terrifying the disorder can make an individual’s life. It was approached with more dignity than stigma towards people with schizophrenia. Though Nina was never diagnosed, nor was the disorder directly stated or referenced in the film, most people could probably assume that schizophrenia was what she was suffering from. If viewers understand this, then they can leave the film having something of a better sense for what it is like to have schizophrenia.

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References American Psychiatric Association. (2017). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Dsm-5(Vol. V). Arlington, VA.

Brewer, A. (2020, April). General Psychology Lecture. General Psychology Lecture. Edmond.

Harvard Health Publishing. (2019, February). Schizophrenia. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/schizophrenia-a-to-z

Schizophrenia. (2016, February). Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml...