Posts Tagged ‘Movie’

Apart from the fact that Robert Downey Jr. & Jamie Foxxs’ acting is exceptional and that its being one of those few encounters that moves my heart like none other, the movie left lingering thoughts on the effect of friendship on people with mental illnesses, an astounding number of homeless people in LA, and a possible correlation between schizophrenia and genius.

Perhaps it is right that what such people need is not another prescription drug or counseling but a friend who truly cares about them. Whenever we are trying to solve a problem, do we not identify the root cause first? When it all comes down to it, I believe in many cases, such mental illnesses begin with one’s feeling of being isolated, hence the title, “The Soloist” (however i’m not sure whether the director had that in mind when he decided to go with the title ). Instead of trying to do a quick fix like we do with many other issues (um, sometimes on very significant matters that determine a whole country’s fate- think stimulus bills?! but, that’s another story), perhaps it’s only appropriate to apply a fundamental resolution by investigating and identifying a true cause in such a case since we are dealing with a human illness. While it will take much longer to derive a conclusion than simply diagnosing and prescribing a drug associated with the disorder as determined by ‘the great psychiatrists’, I believe the result will be more fundamentally effective when taken the alternate route. Think of prescribing a drug as putting a patch on a deep wound without putting antibiotics on it- while it will look like it’s fixed at the moment, your skin’s still infected and will only get worse. All in all, I’m just not convinced that when a patient takes a medication to alleviate a mental illness, aside from its possible placebo effect, it corrects the fundamental problem. It just boggles my mind that we would treat people’s mind the same way we treat- say, a cold. Is a person’s psychological state a body part? No. Then is it right to treat a psychological disorder with a medication as we treat a flu? Probably not, but heck, I’m sure there’s a lot of others who would go for it regardless even after realizing that it’s a band-aid fix, which is only temporary. Perhaps it’s only reflective of the world these days, where we constantly seek instant gratification.