Reflection: psychological disorder in a creative work

Requirements:

• Your reflection post needs to be at least 10 full sentences; there is no maximum limit
• Your post must be written in your own words   
• This assignment asks you to identify a source which is a creative work (movie, book, etc.) Give identifying information about the source, but you don’t need to use APA format to refer to it. However, you also need to refer to an academic source that discusses the disorder. Cite that source with APA format. The academic source could be our textbook or some other reliable source. 

GRADING:

10 points for your own post (you get the full points if your post is at least 10 sentences, you have identified a relevant creative work and a corresponding academic source, and your discussion of the disorder is based on real diagnostic criteria; your opinions, ideas and experiences are not graded for “accuracy”) 

REFLECTION TOPIC:

Find a creative work that portrays at least one psychological disorder. There are many different options for the types of creative work you could choose to analyze: movies, TV series, documentaries, plays, non-academic books, video games, podcasts, etc.

The requirement is that whatever you choose, it is a non-academic creative/informational source that is intended for the general public (not a peer-reviewed academic source such as a professional journal article, or an academic textbook).

Some example psychological disorders you might encounter in various creative works: schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder, phobia, OCD, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia, etc. 

You also need to also find and refer to at least one academic source besides the creative work itself in evaluating the disorder portrayal. The source can be our textbook and/or any other reliable source. Cite the academic source with APA format in-text citations and an APA format reference list. 

Once you have identified a creative work, do the following:

1. Briefly describe the main events and/or idea of the creative work (movie/series/book/game/podcast etc). This does not have to be a detailed plot description, and please no spoilers of critical events. If a spoiler is essential for discussing the psychological disorder(s), please include a spoiler warning for students who don’t want the critical events to be revealed to them. Also provide some relevant general information about the creative work that can help others find this source if they’d like to check it out (e.g. year, director, country of origin, possibly some names of actors or characters, website link, etc.) Feel free to also recommend or not recommend the creative work if you wish.

2. Identify the psychological disorder(s) portrayed in the creative work and critically evaluate the portrayal of the disorder(s). Based on what you learn from reliable academic sources, how accurately is the disorder portrayed? Describe the official diagnosis and typical symptoms of the disorder, and then compare them to the portrayal in the creative work. How realistically is the disorder represented based on the knowledge you have acquired? What improvements and/or clarifications related to the portrayal should be made in the creative work, if any? 

By the way, the creative work does not need to explicitly discuss the disorder by name; if you can justifiably argue and present evidence that a character might have a psychological disorder based on how they act/think/feel, that’s acceptable. However, your analysis must be based on real information about the symptoms/diagnosis of disorders, and you must be able to point out some examples of behavior/thinking by the character that demonstrates a possible disorder diagnosis.