Blog 1

This week during our Q and A we had some very interesting conversations about the exorcist. A memorable moment regarding this that wasn’t educational was the story Dr. Tobia told about having placed a ouija board image into his presentation before a conference, leading to hearing strange noises as well as his statue of Saint Michael disappearing and reappearing. Along with this, we also had an interesting discussion about the misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in place of BPD.

On Wednesday during our book Didactic we discussed a story titled “Under The Influence” By Scott Russel Sanders. This was a very interesting story as it uses figurative language in order to shine a light on the experience of having a relationship with someone who suffers from alcohol use disorder. During this discussion we mentioned egocentrism in the author, as he displays that he feels like his fathers addiction was his fault. This topic was also previously brought up in our Q and A discussion this week when discussing a case about a child who became mute after a death in his family. It is eye-opening to consider how children are effected by traumatic incidences. 

This Friday during the Psyfeld didactic, we discussed Seinfeld’s “The Bizarro Jerry.” Common themes that we found were opposites, as well as defense mechanisms used by Elaine. The most interesting part of this conversation to me was the discussion of the myth about echo and narcissus and how this relates back to personality disorder symptoms shown in the episode. 

On Friday we also had a game of GAFic Med, where we used psychological based clues to guess a character from a movie. The movie for this week was the 2021 film “The Black Phone,” and the character we focused on was Finney Blake. 

After GAFic med we also watched a discussion about the 1999 Sci-Fi/ Action film The Matrix. A topic most people found interesting during this discussion was the many references to disney movies such as Alice in Wonderland as well as Sleeping beauty. Many were fascinated that Alice in Wonderland was based off a drug (LCD) trip and changed our perspective completely. 

Overall it was an insightful week. Dr. Tobia never fails to make us reconsider how we analyze films. Many concepts / scenes can easily be overlooked, yet significant when it comes to diagnosing. The many stories he shares resonate with us both personally and professionally. Until next week!