Mommie Dearest: Psychological Disorders

“I’m crazy!” Joan Crawford first says this in a scene where she is arguing with Greg Savitt about how he supposedly put Mr. Mayor above Joan. She yells at him for being a lousy gentleman to her and insults him and his career. Greg then goes up to her and beings to shake her and asks if she is crazy, pleading for her to tell him she is crazy. This scene gives an example of one of Joan’s psychological disorders, borderline disorder, because of her instability in moods that takes place in the movie Mommie Dearest. Joan Crawford is not just a Hollywood actress and a mother; she is also a mentally ill woman who possesses multiple personality disorders that include, obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline, narcissism, and bipolar disorder. The
According to Rathus, borderline disorder is the instability of mood, having chaotic personal relations, and a disturbed sense of self. A first example of borderline disorder that is shown in the movie is her relationship with Greg Savitt. She went to Greg for everything, even went to him when she wanted to adopt a baby, and he made it happen. She went to him when she would be in a slump in her acting career, and he would help her get the part she wanted. But when they came back from having dinner, she blows a gasket on him for not being a gentleman to her and she blamed all of her faults on him. Greg could not take anymore of her crazy outbursts, so he left her. Another example of how Joan displays borderline disorder is her relationship with her daughter Christina. A scene where this disorder is shown is when Joan dedicates an entire day of her resting so she can prepare herself to see Mr. Mayer. Her children Christopher and Christina were screaming and playing out in the garden. Well, this was not what Joan had planned, so she had Christina come up to her room so she could have a talk with Christina about how important it was to her to have her beauty rest. She scolded Christina and told her to go to her room until she was told to come out. Christina was in her room with her dolls, and she was disciplining them just like Joan had done to Christina. Joan was shocked at this, and when Christina wasn’t
According to Rathus, bipolar disorder involves a cycle of mood changes from depression to wild elation and back again. They have extreme and dramatic ups and downs in mood and change into depression for no apparent reason. The first scene where her bipolar disorder is easily seen is when she gets a call from Greg telling her she got a movie roll. She was very elated and she went upstairs to tell Christina. What she came to find was Christina was in her room playing with her mother’s make up and hair products. She was acting like her mother, and Joan was not happy about it. Joan thought Christina was making fun of her and Joan did not like what Christina had done to her hair. She became very angry and she started yelling at Christina for ruining her hair and she then began to cut all of her hair off. This is an example of bipolar disorder because at one minute, Joan was very excited that she got the part she wanted, and then the next minute, she was flabbergasted by what Christina had done to her hair. A second scene that shows bipolar disorder is when she goes into check on her children. While they are sleeping, she goes into check on them, and she goes around their room to make sure that it is clean. Then, she notices a wire hanger in Christina’s closet. This is not acceptable to her and she then begins to yell and scream at Christina about how she buys her such nice clothes and all she has in