Taxi Driver: A Case Study
Travis Bickle: An Introduction
The facts that are presented to the spectator about Travis Bickle in the most general sense do paint a portrait of a certain level of pathology. Travis Bickle is a decorated Vietnam veteran, and appears to suffer from PTSD. The spectator also quickly learns that Travis does not have many friends: he's socially very isolated and this appears in part to be connected to the fact that he has trouble starting and maintaining friendships.
The spectator learns very quickly that Travis Bickle is given to disturbances in his judgment and perception, as well as in his decision-making process. In fact, the very reason he takes a job driving a taxi, thus bestowing the film with its very title, is because he has trouble sleeping (suffering from insomnia, a common symptom of PTSD). Bickle claims that he got lonely just walking around so he thought that getting a job working nights would make him feel less lonely. Another person without Bickle's pathology might have taken up a hobby, or gone to single bars, or other group activities in order to meet people. However, Bickle chooses to drive a cab: in this sense his meetings with people are limited, mostly one on one, avoid face-to-face eye contact, and there's a transactional imprint on top of the entire meeting.
As the film progresses, the spectator watches the exact pathology of Bickle further unfold and the darker sides of his personality begin to emerge: he can act angry and hostile to people, engaging in paranoid behaviors with a strong focus on revenge. Much of his thought process seems to revolve around the need for controlling his life in a more regimented fashion, along with clearly delusional thinking about the world and his place in it. A focus towards violence and a preoccupation with violence is a common thread in his behavior.
Single Diagnosis
The most accurate diagnosis of Travis Bickle would be that he suffers from schizotypal personality disorder. According to research which looked at the most unwavering characteristics of individuals who have this type of disorder, it was found that, one of the overwhelming characteristics of the condition is that defense mechanisms play an overwhelming role in the schizotypal personality disorder" (Perry et al., 2013).Travis Bickle clearly demonstrates these tendencies. His paranoid behavior motivates many of his actions. Much of the behavior that he engages in within his apartment demonstrates a strong degree of unusualness. For example, the thought processes and subsequent actions that Bickle engages in alone in his apartment demonstrate truly skewed thinking. For example, the viewer watches Bickle place his hand over the flame of a candle in order for himself to feel the pain of the burn, supposedly, so that he can become stronger and more desensitized to pain, one would assume.
The sheer loneliness of Bickle's behavior is a truly common aspect of schizotypal personality disorder. Schizotypal personality disorder has even been found to have overlaps with Aspberger's Disorder in that they both have disorganization in the social-interpersonal and communication areas of the brain (Hurst et al., 2007). This very accurately describes Bickle's behavior. Bickle has a great deal of trouble in relating even to other taxi drivers that he meets and quickly alienates Betsy after just one date with her. The clear inability to relate to other people is demonstrated in the sense that Bickle thought that Betsey would be fine in watching a dirty movie with him; rather it quickly makes her uncomfortable and she wants to terminate the date. In fact one could even make the case that Bickle is unable to pick up on the facial cues that Betsy gives off that she is uncomfortable: successful social interaction is dependent on the ability to decode the facial expressions of others, an aspect of social cognition that people with this disorder have consistent problems realizing effectively (Sugranyes et al., 2011).
Support for the Diagnosis
A tremendous...
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