- ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND CLEMENTINE HOW TO
- ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND CLEMENTINE MOVIE
Her behaviour towards him is also highly volatile as she sometimes wants his love and affection but at other times almost turns violent towards him. While this might be considered in pop culture as giving “mixed signals” and an efficient flirting tactic, the situation is more debilitating in their case as Clementine rapidly shifts from feeling “bored and trapped” with Joel (Gondry, 2004) to begging him to stay with her and “meet (her) again in Montauk”, where they had first fallen in love. 2) Clementine follows a “pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation” (APA, 2013) with Joel. She describes herself as a “f***ed up girl who’s looking for her own peace of mind” and clearly states that she doesn’t want to have to take care of another person. The source of such attachment is not clear since we are not told much about her family history or childhood, but two more symptoms of BPD are manifested in her romantic encounters with Joel : 1) she makes “frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment” (APA, 2013), by either clinging onto him even when he makes it clear that he physically doesn’t want to be so close to her, or by self-sabotaging so that Joel won’t develop feelings for her, and hence questions of abandonment won’t arise. Perhaps as a result of her alcohol dependence, she sometimes reacts with “inappropriate, intense anger, frequent displays of temper, and recurrent physical fights”, which is another identifying symptom of BPD.Ĭlementine reveals her insecure attachment patterns in her relationship with Joel. She even uses her impulsivity to justify her actions to Joel by saying to him “you know me, I’m impulsive”. Substance abuse is clearly something she struggles with, as she stays out getting drunk till late at night, breaks into a closed bar, and even wrecks Joel’s car in her drunken state. The impulsivity is very evident in several parts, where Clementine takes seemingly “adventurous” or “bold” decisions but ends up putting herself in “at least 2 areas that are potentially self-damaging” (APA, 2013). This arguable neuroticism, in addition to her unpredictable thinking and behaviour, amounts to a diagnosis of a cluster B Personality Disorder, more specifically, Borderline Personality Disorder.Ĭlementine displays several symptoms of BPD as prescribed by the DSM-V, which defines BPD as a “pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts” (APA, 2013).
“I apply my personality in a paste”, she says, when trying to explain her frequent changes of hair colour and how they reflect her temporary state of being - which are aptly summarised by the names of the colours : ‘blue ruin, ‘red menace’, ‘yellow fever’.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND CLEMENTINE HOW TO
They claim so themselves, when Clementine says to Joel in their first meeting at a friend’s party, that “it’s good to have someone normal who doesn’t know how to interact at these things either.” (Gondry, 2004) “Normalising” one’s own irrational thoughts and behaviour in this way is another characteristic of a personality disorder (“Personality disorders”, 2016).īetween the two of them however, Clementine seems to have more maladaptive patterns as she very frequently puts herself in perilous positions, or takes actions without thinking of their consequences. That both of these characters potentially have personality disorders of a certain magnitude is evident from the fact that they have rigid and unhealthy patterns of thinking, behaving and unstable interpersonal relationships (“Personality disorders”, 2016). This essay will aim to delineate the traits of both characters that might be indicative of latent personality disorders they had and also help to understand some of the issues that cropped up in their relationship. However, their contrasting personalities mutually reinforce each other while also sometimes getting in their way. What makes their dynamic interesting is that they serve as mirror images of each other - Joel is shy, introverted, lonely, while Clementine is loud, eccentric, impuslive and free-spirited (Gondry, 2004).
Essentially, it is a story about two strangers - Joel and Clementine - who fall in love, break up, erase their memories of each other and then revisit their relationship with virtually no trace of their former selves in the relationship.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND CLEMENTINE MOVIE
The phrase that “opposites attract” perhaps couldn’t ring truer for a movie the way it does for ‘Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind’.
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