Radio-the Movie Essay

Radio
Topic 1 – Psychological Disorders There are many different types of psychological disorders and even more people who fall under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Nevid, 2009, p. 524). In the movie Radio, the main character is a young man name James Robert Kennedy. Also known as Radio, James is in the first scene of the movie shown pushing a shopping cart down a railroad track and is mumbling under his breath and walking with an awkward limp. Immediately the viewer starts to get the idea that there is something abnormal about him. When I looked at the DSM I noticed that Radio fell under Axis II of mental retardation. Our book defines this as “A generalized delay or impairment in the development of intellectual and adaptive skills or abilities” (Nevid, 2009, p. 524). He has a very hard time socializing with others and comprehending simple information. At the beginning of the movie Radio is walking by the football field and the coach notices him. He walks over towards him and says, “I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry for what happened yesterday”. Radio responds by trying to give back the football he found that was kicked over the fence. The day before, a few boys from the football team were caught locking him in the equipment shed and throwing footballs at it scaring him very badly. The coach opens the door and tries to help untie him but Radio doesn’t seem to understand that the coach is only trying to help. You can tell here that his intellectual skills are severely impaired. Radio cannot care for himself and is very dependent on others in the movie for him to survive. One example of this is on Christmas, he calls the coach and says “What pants do I wear?” because his mother is not home to dress him and he also ask the coach how the pants look over the phone. The coach takes Radio home one day after practice and meets his mother. He asks her what is wrong with him but the mother said that the doctor didn’t really diagnose him with anything, just that he was a little slower than others. She said he has a brother named Walter who is just fine. This movie is based off of the seventies so it is probable that then, we didn’t have nearly as much information on mental retardations. I couldn’t really get enough information to categorize him as anything more specific either nor am I educated enough on the topic to make such an assumption. Radio clearly suffers from a psychological disorder and could not survive on his own. He couldn’t adapt quickly enough to get the things he needs if he were not around someone he could depend on. He also lacks many intellectual skills and has many of the complications that I read from the Google Health website. He cannot care for himself, interact with others appropriately, and is socially isolated.

Work Cited
Nevid, JS. (2009). Psychology concepts and applications. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Google Health, www.google.com/health

Cited: Nevid, JS. (2009). Psychology concepts and applications. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Google Health, www.google.com/health