Patch Adams Essay

633 Words3 Pages
Patch Adams is a movie about Hunter “Patch” Adams, a middle age man with contemplated thoughts of suicide. In the beginning of the movie, Patch admits himself into a mental hospital for his suicidal thoughts. He doesn’t feel helped by the doctors in the hospital, but rather the patients. And he also helps them. He makes things fun and they enjoy the life they have with humor and laughter. This is what gives him the motivation to become a doctor. He decides to leave the mental hospital and instead apply to medical school. Patch eventually climbs to the top of the class, but his humor isn’t in favor with the dean or other students. He is almost kicked out entirely, isn’t. Patch did not like the way patients were being treated in med school. He didn’t find it fair that they couldn’t be helped because of insurance reasons. This motivates him to begin his own practice, illegally, and helps patients in need without medical insurance. Along the way, he meets a woman and falls in love with her. She helps him with his practice and in the process of helping one of the patients with a mental disorder, she is shot and killed. This devastated Patch, but in the end decides that he is still able to help people. This true story about Hunter “Patch” Adams is very psychologically related. For one, in the beginning of the movie when he is on the verge of suicide, he is obviously facing a lot of trauma. That trauma led him to get help, hence committing himself in the mental institution. Through the friends he made there, he is able to see that there are better options to life. He help a man who was deathly afraid of the squirrels he saw in his mind overcome that fear and leave his bed that he was practically glued to in fear of the squirrels. This, I feel, is the main thing that motivated him to see a different light. He realized that through his sense of
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