Did he have Schizophrenia?
Which mental condition was he supposed to have?
shareI think he was abused as a child. Not really schizophrenia- I think he might have bipolar disorder.
shareThank you!
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MovieChat Forums > Sweet Hostage (1975) Discussion > Did he have Schizophrenia?
I don't think a clinical diagnosis matters in this case. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, mental illness was often used as a metaphor for being different, eccentric, not fitting in, having a different worldview. The noted anti-psychiatrist R. D. Laing said that being "crazy" was sometimes the only sane response to an insane world or environment. And who can deny that when we look with a more objective, lucid eye at many of the things we take for granted as "normal" & do every day, they may well look insane, or at least ridiculous & arbitrary? "Sane" & "normal" can often be nothing more than majority opinions, what is or isn't accepted by a particular culture. Not that there isn't such a thing as genuine mental illness -- but in a film like this, that's almost beside the point.
shareHe was not mentally damaged. I think he was just a liberal arts major who really believed in what he studied.
shareI had to smile at that! Well said! :)
shareHe was kind of a take off from Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. When there was someone who was a real troublemaker and there was no legal reason to lock him up they'd declare them insane and lock them up that way. At least that's what I understand from the movies.
sharehe was just *beep* insane
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