Saturday, February 26, 2011

My Un-informed Diagnosis of 'The Black Swan'

This is a ballerina. This is not the 'Black Swan.'


I'm probably one of the last people to see "Black Swan," and wish I hadn't waited so long. I loved it! Natalie Portman deserves every award she gets. I was riveted by her performance and her character, which many people have simply described as "crazy", "nuts", or "psycho." But I can't leave it at that. Those terms are too vague. Instead I feel compelled to play amateur psychologist and diagnosis her mental condition.

My diagnosis: Nina had Borderline Personality Disorder.

What leads me to determine that?
1. She wants to be "perfect." She says so on more than one occasion.
2. I think her imagined physical mutations are body dysmorphia. Plus, she has an eating disorder. (Think back to the cake scene and vomiting in the bathroom scenes.)
3. She suppresses her emotions until they rage out of control. She's either a good little girl, or wild child.
4. She engages in self-mutilation (she she pulls off her skin).
5. She is self-destructive.


***SPOILER ALERT!!*** Don't read on if you haven't seen the movie!


But, I can't explain why her own face flashes before her at various times. And I can't explain away the hallucination/delusion that she has killed someone. Those symptoms don't fit into my contrived diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. (I should have taken more Psychology classes!) Maybe she really was just "crazy."

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