“Grey Gardens”–first a documentary, now an HBO movie–profiles Big and Little Edith Bouvier Beale, mother-and-daughter shut-ins, eccentrics, and Jackie O. cousins. Both a good/hard watch. Lots of strange behaviors. But what, you might ask, are the “diagnostic considerations”? One reasonable-sounding answer re Little Edie here:
[A]though it’s been written that The New York Times refused to print Edie’s rebuttal to a scathing review of Grey Gardens because she was “schizophrenic”, one would be hard-pressed to find phenomenology in the film to definitively support this diagnosis. Granted, Edie’s odd beliefs, behaviour and appearance are suggestive of schizotypal personality traits. Ultimately, however, the etiology behind Grey Gardens very strange state of affairs remains a mystery.
MORE: Another angle:
Grey Gardens is a recently re-released cult film that illustrates folie à deux, a shared delusional disorder. The deterioration of the old house in East Hampton parallels the deterioration we observe in the mother and daughter who grow old together, isolated and estranged and more than a little odd. It is a useful learning experience to watch the film with the DSM-IV in hand.
Other ideas? Weigh in.
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NPD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!