Symptoms of a Paranoid Schizophrenic

One of the roles our main actor will be playing is that of a psychiatric patient, and the mental illness I have attributed him is paranoid schizophrenia. Therefore in order to better direct his role and to create actions and scenes that fit the part and that feel realistic, we must better understand the mental illness and learn of its symptoms in order to implement them into his role. We will do this by having a scene in the music video where there will be several copies of our main actor playing his patient role in the same shot and same room, and each copy will be acting out a single symptom of the disorder.

The first symptom is DELUSIONS which is where you believe things that are generally illogical and can come in for different categories; Delusions of persecution (belief that everyone around you is out to get you), Delusions of reference (belief that natural environmental events are specifically meant for you), Delusions of Grandeur (belief that you are a famous figure or that you have special abilities), Delusions of Control (belief that you whole life is in control of a higher force). Delusions are extremely common in paranoid schizophrenic patients occurring in 90% of those with the disorder and it occurs even when there is evidence that their beliefs aren't true. To implement these symptoms into our scene we will attach strings to our actor from an invisible puppeteer which imply that he is being controlled by an unseeable force.

The second symptom is HALLUCINATIONS which are the different ways that our senses are distorted and are allowed to misinterpret external things. The most common one is auditory hallucination which is in the form of hearing voices, caused by misinterpreting the voice of our inner scribe. the hallucinations are normally meaningful to the patient, and they often think it is a loved one speaking to them, however the comments they hear are usually violent and abusive. Placing this in the scene we will have our actor sitting on a chair with very closed body language and constantly jerking from side to side as if he is hearing imaginary voices.

The third symptom is DISORGANISED SPEECH due to troubles with concentration and maintaining train of thought. It manifests itself within the way you speak such as:

• Loose associations where you shift from topic to topic without any links to one another as your train of thought progresses, 
• Neologisms where you make up words which only make sense to you
• Perseveration where you repeat words and statements saying the same thing over and over
• Clang which is making meaningless rhymes within sentences

This will be displayed within the scene by having our actor saying words aloud and looking confused to portray himself loosing train of thought multiple times.

The fourth symptom is DISORGANISED BEHAVIOUR where your behaviour impairs your ability to live adequately and towards certain goals. Mainly manifesting as, the decline in daily functionality, unpredictable/inappropriate emotional responses to external stimuli, useless/bizarre behaviours, lack of impulse control. These behaviours normally disrupt the patients ability to take care of themselves at home, at work and in social situation. The way we will implement this into the scene is to display our actor performing a bizarre behaviour such as inflating a plastic bag.

The fifth and last symptom is ABSENCE OF NORMAL BEHAVIOURS also know as negative behaviours where there is the absence of normal behaviours in healthy individuals, such as:

• Lack of emotional expression - inexpressive face, lack of eye contact, blank facial expressions
• Lack of interest or enthusiasm - Lack of motivation or self-care
• Seeming lack of interest in the world - Unawareness of the environment, social withdrawal
• Speech difficulties and abnormalities - Inability to carry a conversation; short answers to questions and maintaining a monotone in conversations

This will be directed into the scene by having our actor stand still with zero facial expression and zero emotions showing.

The scene will end with another copy of the actor running into the room and running out as if he is displeased with his mental disorder and he wants to escape from the life it entails