Silver Linings Playbook is a American film about a women named Tiffany Maxwell who is played by Jennifer Lawrence. Tiffany is in her twenties and was recently widowed because her husband Tommy died as a police officer. She meet’s a bipolar man named Patrizio “Pat” Solitano Jr. at her sister Veronica and Pat’s friend Ronnie’s house. Veronica thought it would be nice for Tiffany to meet Pat who was released from a psychiatric hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and now lives with his parents in Pennsylvania.
Tiffany and her husband were sexually distant before his death because Tommy wanted to have kids and Tiffany wasn’t ready. She has a great amount of grief that you witness when she enters the film. Tiffany tells Pat the story of how Tommy tried to make things right with her before he was killed. They had been married for three years and the last couple of months had been rough because Tiffany was depressed and Tommy wanted to have kids. He ended up going to Victoria Secret to get something special for his wife. On his way home to give it to her he stopped to help a man on the highway with a flat tire. He ended up getting hit by a speeding car and died with the Victoria Secret box still on his front seat. Tiffany holds so much guilt because of this incident and is acting out because of it.
Tiffany and Pat connected at that dinner the first night they met and ended up leaving early without even finishing the food. She was the first to want to leave the dinner and was quite rude when Veronica asked her to stay. Tiffany mocked and made a face at her as she stood up and left. Veronica was trying to be nice by inviting her and Pat but Tiffany was in an obvious amount of emotional pain. Tiffany told Pat she used to sleep with multiple guys and now she isn’t like that anymore. Tiffany has a bad side to her because the night she met Pat she tried to give him a hug and cry on his shoulder. Instead of doing that she stopped and pushed him off her. Immediately slapping his face as hard as she could because she was upset that he rejected her for sex that night.
She decided to help Pat win his wife back who left him after he caught her having an affair. Pat was ordered by the court to a psychiatric hospital after almost killing his wife’s lover in a fit of rage. Tiffany agrees to help send letters to Nikki, Pat’s wife because Pat can’t visit her while on a restraining order. Tiffany ends up falling for Pat and doesn’t know how to show him. She pretends to be Pat’s wife and writes back to Pat as Nikki. In the end, Pat sees his wife but chases after Tiffany instead. They both love each other and confess their love in the street outside the dance competition that Pat and Tiffany competed in. They end up living as a happy family with Pat’s mom and dad. Pat continued to have a positive outlook on life and his medication that he wasn’t taking in the beginning. As for Tiffany she seems happy in the end but is suffering from undiagnosed borderline personality disorder.
Jennifer Lawrence displays quite a few abnormal behaviors as she portrays Tiffany Maxwell in the film A Silver Linings Playbook. Tiffany appeared at her sister’s house for dinner and started talking about the medications she took. This was abnormal because she was supposed to be spending time with her family at a nice dinner and she decided to have side conversation with Pat about an inappropriate topic. The drugs she used to take was Xanax and Effexor but claimed they made her less sharp so she stopped taking them. Effexor is prescribed for depression and Xanax is prescribed for anxiety and panic attacks.
Tiffany’s abnormal behavior continued as she was known to text random acquittances for sex or attention when she got lonely and depressed. The night Tiffany met Pat was when I really noticed abnormal behavior coming from her. Pat walked Tiffany home from dinner and Tiffany brought up wanting to have sex probably because she was attracted to him and lonely. Pat declined her because they were both considered married and then he dropped it. At this point, Tiffany went from being sexual to sad and angry in a flash. She started crying by putting her head in his shoulder only to then push him off her and slap him right before storming off down her driveway. This made me realize that Tiffany has an extremely hard time at controlling her emotions and she acts on impulse.
Pat was confused as to why Tiffany did that the first night they met. He was convinced that she did it because she is a “slut” and that’s what those types of women do. His therapist stated that maybe she just wants a friend and that’s her only way of showing it.
Tiffany has trouble with her self-image and will sometimes degrade herself. Tiffany agreed that she once was a slut. Once when she was jogging with Pat they started to talk about their past and she brought up how she’s always going to have a part of her that is dirty or naughty. She followed up with how she likes that part of herself. This is Tiffany having a hard time dealing with what she’s done in her past. The only way she knows how to cope is by accepting it.
Tiffany shows manipulative behavior and a disregard to others feelings throughout the film. The first example was at dinner when she only thought about herself and not how her sister and husband felt when she abruptly left during the meal. Tiffany was manipulative when she wanted to lie to Pat about Nikki showing up to the dance competition they signed up to at the end of the film. Tiffany was only thinking about how she could get Pat to participate at the competition because he said he wasn’t going to go.
Tiffany lied to Pat for weeks when she told him she would send Nikki the letters he was writing her. The reason she lied and pretended to be Nikki in the letters back to Pat was because she was trying to reach out and show him that she actually loved him herself and not Nikki.
Tiffany lost her job after Tommy died because she told Pat that she slept with all the men and women in her office. Tiffany is trying to better her life throughout the film but she still has Tiffany Maxwell is a young woman who has seen a lot of sorrow in her short lifetime. Tiffany has been diagnosed with clinical depression before her husband Tommy was even killed. The night he was killed trying to do something good for his wife was the fuel that the fire needed to keep Tiffany in agonizing emotional pain. I believe this traumatic experience is the reason for Tiffany’s Borderline Personality Disorder. The grief Tiffany feels for her husband’s passing is too much for her to handle at once. These are some other etiologies that could have caused Tiffany Maxwell’s BPD.
Psychodynamic theorists believe early parental relationships may play an important role to the onset of BPD. This is because fear of abandonment tortures the majority of people with this disorder. Object relations theorists propose that an early lack of acceptance from parents can lead to a loss of self-esteem and an inability to cope with separation. This is most likely the case for young children who later develop this personality disorder in early adulthood. Tiffany very much could have suffered from this growing up. Her sister Veronica could have always been in the spotlight and her parents might not have showed her enough attention.
The biological factors of borderline personality disorder is that some have an overly reactive amygdala. The amygdala is the brain structure closely tied to fear and other negative emotions. People with BPD have an underactive prefrontal cortex which is the brain region linked to planning, self-control and decision making. They’re some people with BPD that are impulsive who attempt suicide or are very aggressive towards others. These people tend to have lower levels of serotonin activity. I feel that Tiffany could be suffering from all three of these biological factors because she has trouble with aggression towards others, negative emotions and poor self-control.
There are a number of theorists who use a biosocial theory to explain borderline personality disorder. This view claims that the disorder is a result from a combination of internal forces like controlling one’s emotions and external forces like when a child’s emotions are punished or ignored. Sometimes parents don’t realize that their children are hurting and brush off the incident. According to this theory, children have intrinsic difficulty identifying and controlling their emotions and never properly learn how to recognize and control their emotional arousal.
The last theory comes from sociocultural theorists and they suggest that BPD is particularly likely to emerge in cultures that change rapidly. They argue that when a culture loses its stability and it inevitably leaves its residents with a sense of emptiness, high anxiety and fears of abandonment. Families become torn apart because people end up leaving the area and are left with little sense of belonging. This can happen in places where internal war is occurring and they are left with nothing where they grew up.
Treatment Plan
The best treatment plan for Tiffany Maxwell is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). This will be better for her than psychotherapy because it would be difficult for a therapist to develop a positive working relationship with Tiffany in that kind of setting. She may even try to break the boundaries of the therapist and client by being sexual or calling at all hours of the night.
The creator of DBT is a psychologist named Marsha Linehan. Marsha developed this largely from the cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) model. The DBT therapy includes: homework assignments, psychoeducation, the teaching of social and other skills, modeling by the therapist, clear goal setting, reinforcements for appropriate behaviors and collaborative examinations by the client and therapist of the client’s ways of thinking.
I believe this will be great for Tiffany Maxwell because this therapy also takes a humanistic approach where they put the client’s needs first and making them feel important. DBT therapists try to emphasize with the client and try to put themselves in their shoes to feel the pain they feel. I feel this would work for Tiffany because she can be able to dance and also go to therapy. DBT therapy encourages clients to work on social building skills and if Tiffany is in a healthy environment like dance class then she should be fine.
There are a few biological treatments for BPD patients. Antidepressant, antibipolar, antianxiety, and antipsychotic drugs have helped BPD patients by calming them down and getting rid of the emotional waves that come across them. These drugs can be controversial because there have been numerous side effects while people are on them, including suicide attempts. If medication is to be used then it has to be done in conjunction with psychotherapy approaches including DBT. I feel that medication is only helpful in short term scenarios. If someone is admitted to a mental hospital than it might be necessary for them to prescribe medications to help with the transition.
DBT will help her with reducing self-damaging behaviors like getting drunk and having sex as well as help her with interpersonal relationships like her and Pat. The use of drugs will only help manage the symptoms for the time being.
Realism
The way Jennifer Lawrence played the character Tiffany Maxwell was incredible. The dark clothing and hair as well as her lack of emotional filter was spot on accurate for someone who is depressed an experiencing BPD. The movie spent too much time describing Pat and his issues that I think they didn’t take care of Tiffany’s issue as quick and efficiently as they should have. She was never diagnosed other than being depressed because of the cards she been dealt throughout her life. The film focused more on Pat’s bipolar and his love for Nikki instead of showing more of how this was affecting Tiffany and her undiagnosed disorder. Tiffany was in love with Pat from the start but we didn’t see any that until the end of the film. I feel the movie made it seem that these mental issues just go away after some time or if you fall back in love. Pat seemed to be cured because he listen to Dr. Patel his therapist and started having a positive outlook on his medication. Tiffany seemed happy at the end but we didn’t see enough treatment for her to accurately obtain happiness for someone with BPD.