January 29, 2014
Abnormal Psychology
Flowers in the Attic
The movie Flowers in the Attic was one that depicts many different abnormal behaviors from all of the main characters. In the start of the movie the behavior was normal, and perfect. They were a loving family. However the death of the husband caused the family to break down. The mother began to act abnormal first after the father died. She was clearly experiencing depression and grief.
Later in the movie the grandmother is introduced. The grandmother seems to be suffering from some sort of mental and/or emotional disorder. She is very mean to the grandchildren. It seems as though she feels hurt by the birth of her grandchildren.
Initially I thought the father (grandfather) was in love with his daughter and that is why he was so livid about her marriage however after they revealed that his daughters husband is his brother his anger becomes a little understandable. However he still seems a little too emotionally attached to his daughter and is lacking emotional connection with his wife.
The children all start to develop abnormal behavior but that should be expected after being confined to an attic for years. The brother and sister begin to look at each other sexually because they literally don’t see anyone else and their both at the peak of puberty.
The most significant part of the story is the mother pretending as if her kids don’t exist. She went from being a house mother where her only concern was her kids to treating them horribly. The only explanation for that is psychosis; the mother clearly must have been going through it. However I’m not sure if it was caused by the death of her husband or if she never really loved her kids in the first place.