1. I have a BA in Psychology and I've never heard of a disorder that is anything like what Mrs. Balastrero had. When she was talking to the psychiatrist, it sounded like paranoia, but the cause and the other symptoms were totally unusual.
2. The eye witnesses must have been completely blind to think that Mr. Balastrero was the robber. He didn't look anything like that real criminal.
Mrs. Balastrero is suffering from acute melancholia, together with a guilt complex.
Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you *exactly* what to do, what to say?!
Acute? Didn't it last for years?
shareAnd melancholia is not a disorder classified in the DSM. Do you mean depression? Her symptoms were not those of depression.
shareI was making a passing reference to Hitchcock's Vertigo...it's what Scottie is diagnosed with.
I was born when she kissed me
I died when she left me
I lived a few weeks while she loved me
Thanks for your comments No Jealousy, GRT was just having some fun with you in their first response: that was actually the psychiatrist's diagnosis for Scotty Ferguson's mental condition, halfway through the film of "Vertigo" (Hitch's very next one). But...you have touched on one of the weaknesses in the plot however, and one of the reasons the film was never very popular. The audience starts to wonder: "what's with Rose"? Right when she should be "standing by her man" the most, she just wimps out, and withdraws into a shell...why...?
The audience never gets a good explanation of why she did that, and is left with the impression that maybe she suffered from mental problems long before the incident pushed her over the brink. The excuse given for the plot line is that it was based on a real life incident...but it certainly was a very unusual one.
And you are right, the eyewitnesses seemed particularly callous and unemotional in their readiness to quickly name him as the suspect. Maybe a wry, subtle comment on big city life, and it's bleakness. Might have more to say later...Happy New Year everyone...!
RSGRE
The witnesses were trying to identify a man whom they had seen once (or possibly twice, several months apart), for only a couple minutes, some months before ..... while under duress.
Fonda's character matched the general description .... about the same height, similar build, similar coloring (skin tone and hair color), roughly similar facial shape.
And he was wearing a very similar coat and hat combination.
Yes, that's extremely superficial ...... but it is also precisely the kinds of things that people will tend to key on with people that they are meeting / seeing for the first time.
Also remember that with the exceptiuon of the very first woman at the insurance window (who simply had a visceral reaction to the overall shape of Fonda's character), they were all given the expectation of seeing the man who had robbed them before they ever saw him. That predisposed them to "recognize" him.
These are all of the reasons why "eye witness" identifications have repeatedly proven to be much less reliable than juries generally think they are.
You also have to remember that when she was was hospitalized, the DSM probably had diagnoses that have changed significantly since then. There are considerable changes that have been made since I first used the DSM-III-R. It has been revised a few more times since then. You can't really base what they called things then on what they are termed now.
"A man's kiss is his signature" -- Mae West
There were certainly symptoms of depression there, possibly even before the incriminations. Seems like a mixture of mental diseases including paranoia. I don't think it is supposed to be specific.
"I was born last night, when you met me in that alley. That way i'm no past and all future, see."