Psychopathology of Gia - Movie Review

Introduction

The movie Gia, is biographical account about the life of the model Gia Marie Carangi, starring Angelia Jolie. Gia was born in Philadelphia and was part of a broken home. The marital discord between her mother and father left Gia and her two brothers to be abandoned by their mother. When Gia was 17 years old, she and moved to New York City to become a fashion model. Upon her arrival, she caught the attention of a powerful modeling agent, Wilhelmina Cooper, who became a influential mentor in Gia's life. Her natural beauty and attitude allowed her to become a star in the forefront of the fashion industry. Her impulsive, free-spirited nature was a charactereological attribute that was advantageous within her career, but annihilistic in all areas of her life. Gia's façade endorsed glamour and accomplishment but underneath, were pervasive feelings of loneliness and fears of abandonment. The mercurial nature of all of her interpersonal relationships, led to her affinity for mood-altering drugs, in an attempt to cope with intense affect. Her continual ambivalence towards her relationships in conjunction with the inability to effectively regulate her emotions alludes to a fragmented sense of self. Her continued use of substances immersed her into a self-destructive cycle that eventually led to her subsequent demise. This paper attempts to explore the tumultuous life of Gia and elucidate the dynamics of her psychopathology.

Brief Case Presentation

Presenting Problem

Gia is a white, 26 year old female, referred by her mother for a psychological evaluation to assess her cognitive and emotional functioning. The evaluation was requested in effort to better understand Gia's pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, depression, pervasive feelings of loneliness and abandonment, and emotional instability. Focal attention should also be directed towards her dependency on drug use in effort to affectively regulate. At the present moment, she appears to have difficulty maintaining the capacity to fulfill her career obligations and seems to be presenting marked deterioration in adaptive functioning. Psychological evaluation will attempt to explore Gia's underlying psychodynamics and help to offer recommendations for treatment and interventions.

History of Presenting Problem

Gia's interpersonal relationships with others are characterized by emotional intensity and extreme instability, causing significant suffering. Her excessive concern over feelings of abandonment, forces her to persistently pursue relationships that vacillate between the extreme forms of neediness and deprecation. She often displays inappropriate anger in response to realistic time separation from close persons and makes frantic attempts to avoid being alone at all costs.

Gia's inability to manage her intense affect mobilizes her reliance on the heavy use of substances. Her addiction to cocaine and heroin exerts extensive distress in social and occupational functioning. As an addict, she is not longer able to effectively perform her responsibilities as a model and resorts to stealing money from her mother to maintain her habit. Her use of substances has proven to be problematic in preserving close intimate relationships, apparent in the outcome of her most recent relationship, with Linda.

Background

Gia is the only daughter, out of two other brothers, who was born in Philadelphia, PA. They were all, raised by both parents until Gia reached the age of 11. Their household was characterized by frequent parental conflict, exacerbated by her father's alcoholism. Their altercations were often volatile and frequently escalated, amidst her father's drunken rages, where upon he would often accuse her mother of lascivious infidelity. The marital discord overwhelmed her mother so much that, she abandoned her family, leaving her father to raise Gia and her siblings, in a single parent household. Before her mother abandoned the family, her relationship with her mother was extremely close and loving.

Until the age of 17, Gia resided in Philadelphia with her brothers and father, working as a waitress in her father's restaurant. Upon meeting a photographer, named TJ, she moves to New York City, in pursuit of a modeling career. Her unique beauty and demeanor enamored the fashion industry and she quickly rose to become one of NYC's top models. Upon the height of her career and growing popularity, Gia immersed herself within an environment that reveled in a life of promiscuity and drugs. She immediately engaged in a life of indulgence, using cocaine and participating in indiscriminate sexual behavior. She was introduced to a photographer's assistant, Linda and was immediately captivated. Their relationship evolved into a partnership that later became complicated and compromised by Gia's self-destructive drug use. Upon her growing popularity, Gia attempted to reconcile with her mother, who started a new life with a new husband.

Gia's inner torment and turbulent interpersonal relationships drove her to mitigate her depressive feelings of loneliness with substances. She started abusing heroin and became increasingly dependent. Her partnership with Linda, initially served as an impetus to discontinue the use of substances. She committed herself to an outpatient methadone clinic, but the attempt was short-lived and remained largely unsuccessful. Her addiction to heroin promoted risqué behavior, which included stealing from her mother, conflict with law enforcement, and a blatant disregard for occupational responsibilities. Her dependency compelled her to share needles with other addicts, which subsequently led to her contraction of HIV.

Mental Status Exam

The patient presented moderate hygiene, wearing a semi-wrinkled long sleeve shirt and jeans. Her build was exhibited to be frail and malnourished. She appeared intoxicated at the interview, evident by her glossy-eyes, vacant stares, and acknowledgement of recent ingestion. She initially presented a defensive reaction when asked about her last intake of a substance. She retorted with mild irritation and with a slight inflection in her tone of voice, "Do I look like, I'm on anything?" She immediately then, expressed, "What do you want for me? I'm here, aren't I? It's the last time!" Patient was generally responsive to direct questions, but appeared distracted at times, when making intermittent eye contact and gazing out the window. She showed signs of drug dependence through recent needle track marks and thrombosed veins.