BirdyStars

Nicolas CageMatthew Modine

Director: Alan ParkerAngela's Ashes, Evita, Bugsy Malone

The Road to Wellville, The Commitments, Mississippi Burning, Midnight Express,

Pink Floyd The Wall, Fame

 

Birdy Based on 1978 Novel By William Wharton Born Albert William du Aime UCLA: B.A. Art;Psychology Ph.D. Died 10/29/2008 Novel about World War II Veterans Movies from other novels:

“Dad” and “A Midnight Clear”

AgendaAgenda

Have fun

Watching movie Learning Joining conversation

After the movie..After the movie..

PTSD Clinical issues, day-to-day veterans’ issues, cinematic considerations

Matt Miller, LCSW;Veterans Administration

--Clinical considerations  Tom Price, LCSW,Veteran, St. Patrick Center

--Realities for returned veterans

History of PTSDHistory of PTSD

DSM posttraumatic stress

disorderICD

post-traumatic stress disorderElsewhere,

post traumatic stress disorder

PTSDPTSD

Term created in the mid-1970s,

Officially added as Anxiety Disorder DSM-III (1980)

DSM-5 (2013) created new category:Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

PTSD-like descriptionsPTSD-like descriptions

Ancient EgyptGreeceRomeIndiaElizabethan England

HerodotusHerodotus

In battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.  Athenian warrior went permanently

blind although “wounded in no part of his

body.” When he saw nearby comrade killed

OddyseyOddysey

3-week trip home from the Trojan War becomes a ten-year journey

To avoid dangers of Scylla and Charybdis,

  do not resist the dangers (much as

modern trauma sufferers must overcome their resistance to memories of the traumatic stressors).

OddyseyOddysey

Sorceress Circe admonishes him, "Do the works of war concern you

still, and toil?  He is tempted by Sirens

and the addictive lotus fruit

First Medical TerminologyFirst Medical TerminologySwiss Military Physicians-1678

melancholy incessant thinking of home disturbed sleep or insomnia weakness loss of appetite anxiety cardiac palpitations stupor Fever

First Medical TerminologyFirst Medical Terminology

“Nostalgia”

NostalgiaNostalgia

1863 Public outcry about numerous

“insane soldiers” wandering around First military hospital for the insane Most common diagnosis: Nostalgia.

French Doctors: maladie du pays, (Disease of the Country)

German doctors: heimweh (Homesick)

American Civil WarAmerican Civil War

military physicians diagnosedparalysis tremorsself-inflicted woundsnostalgia

American Civil WarAmerican Civil War Jacob Mendes Da Costa-1871 Study Identified “Soldier’s Heart” (DaCosta’s Syndrome)severe

palpitations; an ailment of the sympathetic nervous system

Soldiers on normal leave often collapsed with emotional illness at home, even when asymptomatic on duty

1901 Schreckneurosen1901 Schreckneurosen

Bruns and Stierlin studied the symptoms of survivors of volcanic eruptions and mining accidents

they coined the term "Schreckneurosen"- the terror neuroses.

Russian Army of 1905Russian Army of 1905

First army to determine that mental collapse was a direct consequence of the stress of war and to regard it as a legitimate medical condition

German physician Honigman served with Red Cross there, and coined the term “war neurosis” [Kriegsneurose]

World War IWorld War I

High psychiatric casualties attributedto the new large-caliber artillery.

Believed the impact of the shells produced a concussion

Thus the term “shell shock” Freud:“war neurosis”caused by conflict

between a soldier’s “war ego” and his “peace ego.”

World War IIWorld War II

1945, Grinker and Spiegel : “Combat… or Battle Stress” “Combat Exhaustion” “Acute combat reaction" “Battle Fatigue”

1952 DSM-I1952 DSM-I

“Gross Stress Reaction” …exposed to severe physical

demands or extreme emotional stress, such as in combat or in civilian catastrophe (fire, earthquake, explosion, etc)

[may be] “previously…normal” The particular stress involved will

be specified as (1)combat or (2) civilian catastrophe

DSM-II -1968DSM-II -1968

307.3 Adjustment Reaction of Adult Life

[different coding for different life stages]

Example: Fear associated with military combat and manifested by trembling, running, and hiding.

First Medical TerminologyFirst Medical Terminology

“Nostalgia”

PTSD—Back to TodayPTSD—Back to Today

Term created in the mid-1970s,

Officially added as Anxiety Disorder DSM-III (1980)

DSM-5 (2013) created new category:Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

Clinical ConsiderationsClinical ConsiderationsIn what ways was Al prepared and

unprepared for the stress of combat before he joined the Army?

How should we diagnose Al, if at all? How should we diagnose Birdy? Does Birdy's behavior in the asylum

correspond with dissociation, or is it more like a form of catatonia?

Clinical ConsiderationsClinical Considerations

How does Birdy’s pre-military behavior relate to his post-deployment behavior, if at all?

Did the movie portray Birdy's pre- and post-deployment behaviors as maladaptive coping, or someone "being himself?"

Clinical ConsiderationsClinical Considerations

How does the movie portray the treatment options available to these two veterans in the Vietnam era, and how has that changed today?

What's up with that ending?!  What does it mean, what does the writer imply about the two men, and what's going to happen to each of them?

Cinematic ConsiderationsCinematic Considerations

Chris Clark, BA, Cinema St. Louis

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