Dr. Malcolm Sayer s The Film Awakenings - 1950 Words

Awakened to the Psychological Concepts Portrayed in Film Jake E. Bukuts Fort Mill High School Awakened to the Psychological Concepts Portrayed in Film The film Awakenings is an emotional film that tells the story of a doctor, named Dr. Malcolm Sayer played by Robin Williams, who starts work at a chronic hospital in the Bronx during the late 1960’s. As he examines patients at the hospital though he comes to observe a good many of them are experiencing the same symptoms of a being in a catatonic and unresponsive state yet still having the ability to react to certain stimuli. One patient in particular, named Leonard Lowe played by Robert De Niro, catches Sayer’s attention and he decides to administer a new drug known as L-Dopa in hopes of saving him from his coma-like state. The drugs works and soon all of the once statuesque patients are reanimated, but only for a short time, and sadly soon Leonard and the rest of his fellow patients regress to their original catatonic state. However, although this films proves to be deeply emotional with an extremely touching story many concepts that relate to psychology are also present within it as well. Some concepts present within the film Awakenings are that of the principle of ethics, the frustration-aggression theory, conformity, and also the idea of empathy-altruism. Psychological Concepts The Principle of Ethics The first and probably the most prominent psychological concept that is portrayed in the film isShow MoreRelatedThe movie Awakenings4852 Words   |  20 PagesMeagan McGee Psychology 1300 Awakenings The movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro portrays the true story of a doctor named Dr. Malcolm Sayer, and the events of the summer of 1969 at a psychiatric hospital in New York. Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is a research physician, is confronted with a number of patients who had each been afflicted with a devastating disease called Encephalitis Lethargica. The illness killed most of the people who contracted it, but some were left living