Silver Linings Playbook
In this paper I will discuss the three main characters of the Silver Linings Playbook
movie. This was a wonderful movie and although fictitious gives a small insight into mental
illness. Pat, Pat Sr., and Tiffany are all larger than life characters who each in their own way are
dealing with mental illness. In the following I will discuss my personal diagnosis’ and how if I
were a doctor would treat these patients.
Pat Jr. would be diagnosed with bipolar obviously as it was stated in the movie. Pat
showed signs of emotional, cognitive, somatic, and behavioral symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Pat’s symptoms seem to be a life-long issue for him although didn’t seem to be a huge issue until
a week before his wife cheated on him when the delusions started to get out of hand. He is living
with a hair trigger temper, paranoid delusional thoughts, denial at times, manic state of being for
the most part, and a song is a trigger to the trauma that he had. His behavior seemed to get better
at the end when he fell in love with Tiffany and many people struggling with mental illness fare
better when in love anyways.
Pat’s first symptom was paranoid delusional thoughts. Pat truly believes that he will be
allowed back at work if he reads all of Nicki’s book on her syllabus even though he beat a man
who works there almost half to death. The week before the incident where his wife was cheating
Pat called the police to say his wife and the history teacher were plotting against him by
embezzling money from the local high school. Finally there is the incident where Pat freaks out
because he thinks his family is hiding his wedding video from him then tell the police when he
arrives that Nicki is being manipulated.
Pat’s second symptom is mood swings. First he reads Hemmingway he’s calm and
serene. Then flips out when he’s done throws the book out the window then wakes his parents at
4am. He begins to vent to them that the ending was sad and says life isn’t that way. Next has
melt down over the song that was played at his wedding and when he found his wife cheating.
The song was playing at his doctor’s office and he freaked out and destroyed the book shelf
looking for a speaker. This one is under two categories but he switched his mood when he
couldn’t find his wedding video his mood went from ok to off the wall out of control.
Pats last symptom was trouble sleeping. This one seems a little odd but it is a symptom
of bipolar and it was something I noticed the first time I watched this video. First the movie
shows him lying in bed just starting at the ceiling. Then, he stayed up till 4am reading
Hemmingway. Next he stayed up till 3am looking for the wedding video.
