Darren Aronofskys Requiem for a Dream

you can focus on either the adolescent main characters or the maternal figure who gets addicted to amphetamines in an effort to stay thin.  For Requiem for a Dream, it should  focus on the intersect between addiction and personality.

A. Introduction: Storyline and Characters:  5 points No more than one page

Describe, in general, the character who depicts the disorder.  How does the movie or story portray him/her overall?  Is the character likeable, sympathetic, evil, annoying, confusing? 

B. Diagnosis:  15 points  — each of the following questions are worth 5 points
1.    Describe the characters mental disorder.
2.    How does it compare a disorder  described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders (DSM V).  This should include an enumeration of which criteria are present as well as characteristics which are not consistent with what you know about this disorder? 
3.  How does the characters disorder appear to be impacting his/her level of distress, overall functioning and relationships?

C. Explanation and  Treatment: (15 points)  each subsection  is worth 5 points  — Each subsection judged by the rubric below
1.How does the movie either directly illustrate or allude to the background and cause of the patients disorder?  What do you see as the precipitating and predisposing factors of this disorder? How do you explain the origins of his disorder based on hints or other information given?  Do you think this explanation is valid?  Why?
2. Can you think of another type of explanation other than the one given (i.e. biological/ family-social/ psychodynamic?  Include as part of this a discussion of the psychodynamic and biological  models as they explain the disorder of the character you chose.
3. How does the film deal with the treatment of this disorder either explicitly or implicitly?

D. Research Perspectives (Very important!:(30 points  — 10 points for each article)  Find 3 recent research articles about your disorder