MovieChat Forums > Pieces of April (2003) Discussion > Narcissistic mother

Narcissistic mother

posted 12 years ago by perennial08
7 replies | jump to latest

I have two parents with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). I realized when I watched this movie that the mother was very much like my own, but I didn't make the connection until eight years later, when reading about clinical narcissism (as opposed to the everyday "it's all about meeee" variety) and it mentioned the mother in this film is a narcissist. If I'd have found out sooner about NPD, I could've been saved a lot of suffering. Posting this for those who come here thinking their moms are like this mom, too. There are lots of resources out there.

See if this essay resonates: http://parrishmiller.com/narcissists.html

[–] hodie 11 years ago

SPOILERS:

I don't know. The mother was dying of cancer and was feeling pretty horrible most of the time. And April had done a lot of horrible things,like throwing lighted matches at her little sister.

"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

[–] ExtrodinaryGirl 11 years ago

I know April had done alot of horrible things growing up but it seemed like there was no love or compassion at all from the mother, or for that matter from anyone aside from her dad. It just seems to me that no matter what kind of hell your kid may put you through they're still your kid and you'd love them unconditionally. Her mother seemed like she would rather die without ever seeing her daughter again than to give her another chance and see how it went. Just seemed like she really no had love in her heart for April up until the very end of the movie.

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what u share w/ someone else when ur uncool

[–] rocketXpert 10 years ago

Agreed. I doubt the cancer suddenly transmogrified her into a bitch; she was probably always like that to a certain extent. While Joy obviously is using her condition as an excuse to act out and make life difficult for everybody, you definitely get the impression that she was never a very warm and nurturing mother to begin with. Even when she's apologizing to Beth in the car, she's criticizing and insulting her at the same time. when she reconciles with April in the end, she does so by ditching the rest of her family at the restaurant- kind of a dick move. I love this movie, and I have to have some sympathy towards Joy because she's dying and all, but she is just not a very pleasant woman.

[–] mleprkr 10 years ago

And April had done a lot of horrible things,like throwing lighted matches at her little sister.

one of the worst things a parent can do when trying to have a relationship with their adult child is hold on to the things that child did when they were still young. aren't people allowed to grow and to change and to become someone? are you at 25, or 35, the person you were at 13, or 15, or 18?

[–] rpgdancer 9 years ago

and i mean really... the whole she always bit me while she was breast-feeding. it's her fault i have cancer bit! sure, blame the infant.

[–] DeusExKatrina 10 years ago

I think the mother was worried about her daughters upstaging her and taking her place. Notice how through the course of the film she never mistreats her son, but she frequently mistreats both of her daughters. She originally just focused on April as the first born, but once April was more or less out of the picture she seems to have turned on the other daughter as well.

---
"Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame."

[–] jpgr1 9 years ago

I felt the same nagging sense of familiarity while watching this film. Thank you for confirming it for me. I had a narcissistic mother. While watching this film I had the thought "Wow, she's just like my mother was." Even terminal cancer didn't change her. My mom put on a much more charming front than the mom in the movie, though.