k-pax (a movie)?
February 282010
1. describe specific symptoms and/or behaviors that indicate Prot is suffering a mental disorder
2. describe the therapeutic approaches being used by the psychologist to treat Prot.
3. what seem to be the most effective therapeutic techniques?
That’s my favorite movie!!!
1. You could indicate Prot is suffering from a mental disorder because of his perception of reality like zac said already. Because Prot can present new facts that don’t fit into what Earth society believes he is considered mentally unstable. Whether he actually is unstable is up to the viewer of the movie to decide, personally I believe Prot is from K-Pax because he provided suffucient evidence to persuade me such as talking to the dog, knowing the star system hardly anyone knew about, vanishing from the hospital, taking Beth the second time he left when he had to go back to K-Pax, etc. However you could make the argument he was mentally unstable and those were just coincidences.
2.Some of the therapeutic approaches used to treat Prot would be:
-Hypnosis/regression – He had Prot go back in time to when he was younger and first met Robert Porter and then again to the night when he tried to drown himself.
-I forgot the word for it but it is when something you do something and it triggers a rush of memories to come back to you – he did this unintentionally when the sprinkler was turned on at his house and Prot has the Robert Porter drowning memory come back to him, he breaks down and starts crying and trying to protect the little girl.
-He tries sit down sessions with him on a routine basis, you should remember this from the movie, he even tries to play into Prot’s "alter-ego" by dimming the lights and asking him if it reminds him of K-Pax. He tries this again when he brings him to the astronomy lab and has the astronomer’s ask him questions about his galaxy.
3.Hard to say since none of the treatments actually "cured" him since he seems to actually be an alien and is able to at every turn come out on top when he goes head to head with the Doctor. You could say the hypnosis/regression had the most effect since the doctor learned about Robert Porter and that something terrible happened in his past(actually Robert’s past) but he still had to go to Arizona to learn more about what actually happened. Even once he learns about what actually happened and confronts Prot with the yearbook with Robert Porter’s picture Prot denies that it is him but says "Now that you found Robert, take care of him" which in my opinion indicates Prot is actually an alien and took over Robert Porter who was his friend from Earth and now that Robert is in the Dr.’s hands he will be safe when Prot goes back to K-Pax.
Hope this helped, but I’m curious do you think Prot was an alien or he was mentally unstable?
February 28th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Haha…that’s a GREAT movie!
1. Prot is considered mentally ill because of his perception of REALITY. What he considers to be true isn’t average and isn’t the NORM. Anything that isn’t the NORM is considered WRONG by the majority.
2. Well, they try to prove to him that his REALITY is irrational and UNREALISTIC. But they fail, because Prot keeps providing convincing evidence for his belief of being an Alien from K-Pax.
3. None were effective and/or successful as I mentioned above.
References :
February 28th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
That’s my favorite movie!!!
1. You could indicate Prot is suffering from a mental disorder because of his perception of reality like zac said already. Because Prot can present new facts that don’t fit into what Earth society believes he is considered mentally unstable. Whether he actually is unstable is up to the viewer of the movie to decide, personally I believe Prot is from K-Pax because he provided suffucient evidence to persuade me such as talking to the dog, knowing the star system hardly anyone knew about, vanishing from the hospital, taking Beth the second time he left when he had to go back to K-Pax, etc. However you could make the argument he was mentally unstable and those were just coincidences.
2.Some of the therapeutic approaches used to treat Prot would be:
-Hypnosis/regression – He had Prot go back in time to when he was younger and first met Robert Porter and then again to the night when he tried to drown himself.
-I forgot the word for it but it is when something you do something and it triggers a rush of memories to come back to you – he did this unintentionally when the sprinkler was turned on at his house and Prot has the Robert Porter drowning memory come back to him, he breaks down and starts crying and trying to protect the little girl.
-He tries sit down sessions with him on a routine basis, you should remember this from the movie, he even tries to play into Prot’s "alter-ego" by dimming the lights and asking him if it reminds him of K-Pax. He tries this again when he brings him to the astronomy lab and has the astronomer’s ask him questions about his galaxy.
3.Hard to say since none of the treatments actually "cured" him since he seems to actually be an alien and is able to at every turn come out on top when he goes head to head with the Doctor. You could say the hypnosis/regression had the most effect since the doctor learned about Robert Porter and that something terrible happened in his past(actually Robert’s past) but he still had to go to Arizona to learn more about what actually happened. Even once he learns about what actually happened and confronts Prot with the yearbook with Robert Porter’s picture Prot denies that it is him but says "Now that you found Robert, take care of him" which in my opinion indicates Prot is actually an alien and took over Robert Porter who was his friend from Earth and now that Robert is in the Dr.’s hands he will be safe when Prot goes back to K-Pax.
Hope this helped, but I’m curious do you think Prot was an alien or he was mentally unstable?
References :