What Is The Role Of Hedy In The Movie Single White Female

Mental illness has been portrayed in the media for many, many years. Often times the media will over exaggerate the characters or portray the illness in a negative, unrealistic, or offensive manner. The character will usually be portrayed as slow and unintelligent, sometimes even a murderer. This poor portrayal of mental illness can lead to negative stereotypes and continue to long standing stigma of “the mentally ill.”
The purpose of this paper is a complete character analysis of the role of “Hedy” in the movie Single White Female. This paper will attempt to look at her character’s mental illness and determine a diagnosis and treatment plan for the identified illness using the DSM-5 and other resources. This paper will also explore the developmental
course of the illness along with epidemiology and possible differential diagnoses.
Topical Event In this movie, Allie Jones, played by Bridget Fond, recently discovers her finance has cheated on her when she receives a phone call from his ex-wife in the middle of the night. Allie proceeds to break up with him and ends the engagement. She throws him out of the apartment and begins to look for a new roommate and decides to put an ad in her local newspaper. After meeting with several different people, she decides on Hedy played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Allie and Hedy become friends and begin to build a strong friendship bond. Hedy opens up to Allie about her being a twin and tells Allie how her twin was stillborn which has caused her to feel lonely her entire life. In the very beginning of the movie twins are playing with makeup which you then realize is Hedy and her twin. Later in the movie, Allie discovers a newspaper clipping and photo stating the one twin drowned at the age of 9.