Black Swan Character Analysis

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In the movie Black Swan, Nina Sayers suffers from several mental disorders that were possibly triggered by her stressful lifestyle as a dancer. She displays symptoms of a subtype of schizophrenia known as paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most commonly diagnosed schizophrenia subtype. Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia tend to experience symptoms including auditory hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, anger, detachment, aggression, condescension, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This mental disorder makes it difficult to differentiate between what is reality and what is fantasy. The symptoms of schizophrenia are divided into positive and negative symptoms. An individual must display at least two positive symptoms or one positive symptom as well as a negative symptom. Positive symptoms are symptoms that are only present in people with schizophrenia and atypical to the average person, such as hallucinations. Negative symptoms include deficits of standard emotional responses, such as lack of motivation or inability to experience pleasure. Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia usually do not display negative symptoms. For one to be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the symptoms must persist for at least one to six months without the influence of any sort of medication or elicit drug. The development of paranoid schizophrenia is a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Those with a family history of schizophrenia are more likely to develop the illness than those without a family history. Environmental factors also play a role. Large amounts of stress are usually the main trigger for those who develop schizophrenia. Also, those who live in an urban environment are more likely to develop schizophrenia than those in more rural environments. Researchers are currently using this information to search for ways to prevent

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