O - Movie Review

The movie O is a modern day version of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello, the Moor of Venice. Hugo Goulding, who is a prep school boy who becomes extremely jealous of his best friend, Odin James, that he devises a scheme to destroy Odin's life and those that he cares about. Everyone at the school adores Odin including Hugo's father Duke Goulding, going as far as saying that Odin is just like his own son. At the beginning of the movie, it's starts out as a simple envy of another person's life, but the viewer soon discovers that not only is the character not simple, but he is quite the manipulator. The way that he turns all his friends against each other without any kind of emotion is a red flag to his mental state. He has no remorse about using one person against another in order to fulfill his ultimate wish of destroying Odin James's life.

Hugo has sociopath tendencies; he is highly intelligent and also very popular among his peers. He shows no emotion for his actions, he cares only about how people can help him. He tortures animals to lash out at people, namely his father. He has delusions of victimization and has no real sense of reality. His perceptions are not in reality, he has thoughts and actions that seem as if he is in his own world. His diagnosis would look like this:

Axis I: Schizoid, delusional disorder

Axis II: narcissistic personality disorder

Axis III: none

Axis IV: problems with family, feeling betrayed by friends, feeling unloved/unwanted by family, taking drugs to earn praise from family (for basketball)

Axis V: 41-50 GAF, he can function but he is able to do less and less without his disorders interfering with his daily life

To help assist with his diagnosis the tools that I would use are a clinical interview to establish his symptoms as genuine and not due to the steroids that he takes for basketball. I would also use a mental status exam to help determine his behavior. I would also have him look at the Rorschach Inkblot test in order to determine his stable traits and to basically see what's on his mind.