After watching the movie Split, I was deeply attracted by many of the pictures and its storyline. Although I have not been exposed to schizophrenia, I feel that I can at least understand a part of them through this movie. Psychology has always been a subject that I am very interested in, and I am also happy to study schizophrenia. However, some of the story I saw were not as well as what I expected. In the movie, the main character Kevin split a twenty-forth personality which has super abilities is not very realistic. In my opinion, although the protagonist is a mental patient, what he does needs to have a certain scientific explanation so that the audience can project the story into the real society. Furthermore, having twenty-four personalities are too much for one person, this makes the story line blurry and not easy to understand. My researches focused on people with schizophrenia, their causes, symptoms, and treatments. In my adaptation, I will decrease the number of personalities that the main character has, and the character will not have any unusual abilities. Also, my character is able to clearly understand the behavior of his other personalities, which means I will focus more on his thoughts and his past experiences than the descriptions of victims. In general, I want to create a person who has caused schizophrenia and violent impulses because of his tragic past experience, and he acquiesced in his personalities to hurt people and is able to know their thoughts then communicate with them.
Annotated Bibliography “Cognitive insight, neurocognition and life skills in patients with schizophrenia” * This article introduced some of the significant symptoms and behavioral characteristics of schizophrenia. It turned out that most people with this disease can live in their society like anyone else. “In general, our results demonstrate the scarce influence of cognitive insight on daily functions. The variables most closely associated with the said functions are negative symptomatology and premorbid intelligence.” This makes me consider that my character will live in a big city by himself, and he looks normal in front of people but changes when he is alone.
“The Relationship of Antisocial Personality Disorder and History of Conduct Disorder with Crime Incidence in Schizophrenia” * This article focuses on schizophrenia offenders and looks at their brain and mental activity to find the difference between them and people with general schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia will selectively split their personality because of their own experiences, and if the past experience is too unbearable, they will have the urge to kill or violence. History of conduct disorder in childhood, antisocial personality disorder, and high score of psychopathy in PCL-R were significantly more prevalent in schizophrenic patients with criminal history compared with non-criminal schizophrenic patients. This means that besides the type of clinical symptoms and their severity, which can lead to hostile behaviors[10] and homicidal reactions,[27] other factors must also be considered to prevent criminal behaviors and worsening patient’s condition. This has a significant effect on schizophrenic patients’ rehabilitation, predicting crimes, and preventing re-offense.” I think this can help me create the protagonist's past and give him enough motivation to commit crimes. He may have witnessed the death of a loved one or a friend at a young age, which led him to have a certain understanding and impulse to kill.
“Substance Dependence and Schizophrenia in Patients with Dangerous, Violent and Criminal Propensities: A Comparison of Co-Morbid and Non-Co-Morbid Patients in a High-Security Setting” * This article introduces reasons for the formation of the schizophrenia criminals, as well as the anti-social personality that may appear. Through the experiments, the researchers found out that people with mental illnesses are more likely to commit crimes, and they are accompanied by the use of alcohol or drugs and the psychological shadows that were created in childhood. Patients with schizophrenia and co-morbid alcohol and/or drug dependence were younger, were more frequently from socially deprived areas, had a greater history of previous convictions and were more likely to have intoxication as a factor leading to admission. They were more frequently detained under criminal sections. They came from more disturbed backgrounds with a greater history of physical and sexual abuse.” By reading this article, I am more certain of the character of my character and his experience. As a mental patient, he has very sensitive thinking and keen reconnaissance. Also, he may not be noticeable, but he would rather stay in the dark to observe the surrounding movements.
“Validation of a brief implicit association test of stigma: schizophrenia and dangerousness” * The article talks about the dangerousness of mental illness patients, and they concluded that people are too sensitive to their existence, and many people think that they are extremely dangerous because of movies and novels they’ve watched and are afraid to approach those patients. But study shows that people with mental illnesses are not as dangerous as the public think, most of them are cannot pose a threat, in which “Correlations were low between the BIAT-SD and awareness of the stereotype that people with schizophrenia are dangerous, attitudes towards others in general, and confidence in providers.” In my adaptation, I want my character to be aware of the fact that a lot of people are afraid of psychiatric patients, so he hide all of his personalities when communicating to people, because this will make him look harmless.
“Perceptions of the causes of schizophrenia and associated factors by the Holy Trinity Theological College students in Ethiopia” * The passage mainly discussed the treatment and treatment and danger of schizophrenia, as well as the public’s opinions toward this decease. The author learned through interviews that most people think that schizophrenia is a major cause of crime. Furthermore, the disease can be treated, but it is dangerous and can even lead to death. “Linking mental health service with spiritual care to address community mental health care needs and for early detection as well as referral link- age of mentally ill patients is warranted.” there are people willing to help treating schizophrenia patients, and in my adaptation, I can use this to create a kind psychologist character that helps the main character, like the movie Split.
“Impact of Childhood Trauma on Sensory Gating in Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia” * The authors of this article put their effort to find out what contributes to the onset of schizophrenia and focuses on what children experience. “The patients with first-episode schizophrenia experienced a higher level of SA and deficit of sensory gating. Furthermore CT have effects on sensory gating, which may be contribute to the onset of schizophrenia.” The conclusion verifies that a large part of the onset of schizophrenia is due to the psychological trauma of the patient during childhood, which inspired my adaptation. The main character’s victims might have some kind of similarities that cause him to remember his childhood trauma, thus have the impulse of killing.
Work Cited Exposito, Miguel Simon, and Elena Felipe-Castano. “Cognitive Insight, Neurocognition and Life Skills in Patients with Schizophrenia.” Psicothema, no. 3, 2018, p. 251. EBSCOhost, doi 10.7334/psicothema2018.12. Steele, Jon, et al. “Substance Dependence and Schizophrenia in Patients with Dangerous, Violent and Criminal Propensities: A Comparison of Co-Morbid and Non-Co-Morbid Patients in a High-Security Setting.” Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, vol. 14, no. 3, Dec. 2003, p. 569. EBSCOhost, libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/authmaine.asp?url=https:// search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=edb&AN=11622491&site=eds-live. Denenny, Danielle, et al. “Validation of a Brief Implicit Association Test of Stigma: Schizophrenia andDangerousness.” Journal of Mental Health, vol. 23, no. 5, Oct. 2014, p. 246. EBSCOhost, libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/authmaine.asp?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=edb&AN=98255988&site=eds-live. Maghsoodloo, Safa, et al. “The Relationship of Antisocial Personality Disorder and History of Conduct Disorder with Crime Incidence in Schizophrenia.” Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, vol. 17, no. 6, June 2012, p. 566. EBSCOhost, libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/authmaine.asp?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=edb&AN=100984138&site=eds-live. Solomon, Melat, et al. “Perceptions of the Causes of Schizophrenia and Associated Factors by the Holy Trinity Theological College Students in Ethiopia.” Annals of General Psychiatry, no. 1, 2018. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1186/s12991-018-0213-3. Li, Xian-Bin, et al. “Impact of Childhood Trauma on Sensory Gating in Patients with First- Episode Schizophrenia.” BMC Psychiatry, vol. 18, no. 1, Aug. 2018, p. N.PAG. EBSCOhost, libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/authmaine.asp?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=edb&AN=131287173&site=eds-live.