The Portrayal of Psychological Disorders in The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Abstract

This dissertation tackles the portrayal of the psychological disorders in the film The Butterfly Effect. This particular film was employed for it portrays trauma and its relation psychological disorders. In other words, trauma and its manifestation is illustrated in the film. Hence, it is the ideal piece for this study. The main purpose of the study is to investigate and identify the psychological disorders in The Butterfly Effect. That is to say, this work attempts to investigate the manifestation of trauma in the film. It also seeks to identify the way characters coped with their pasts. Each characters reacted differently to the same traumatic events. Therefore, this works pursues to recognize the way trauma is unique. To reach this aim, the psychoanalytic approach was implemented to seek the reason or reasons that made the characters respond in certain way. Chaos theory was implemented to show the complexity of the plot in relation the characters' situations and past. This dissertation divulges that trauma is unique in the sense that each character in the film has a different reaction to the same traumatic events. In other words, the characters manifest different responses and ways to cope with their troubled past.