Chloe: The Special Psychological Analysis

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Chloe is a beautiful young woman who suffers from a personality disorder.
 

The movie, entitled after her name, Chloe, is a story about a relationship of a husband and a wife (David and Catherine); a mother and a son (Catherine and Michael); a woman to another woman (Catherine and Chloe); and a son and a patient (Michael and Chloe).

The movie is kind of ‘connect-the-dots’ because each one got into contact with another. The problem of the first pair is suspicion of infidelity. At first, it was only Catherine thinking about it. But since they live in the same house, that thought got passed to David and so he thinks the same way about Catherine. 

“Where did the little boy who used to run to his mommy’s arms go?” is the scenario of the second pair. Michael is a teenager now and as teen agers act nowadays, it’s as if they can already live on their own, independent from their parents.

For the third pair, what Catherine was missing for a long time, she found in Chloe. It may not be appropriate, but that’s how the story went. It was Chloe’s doing that led them together in one bed for a night. It was what she had wanted the moment she met Catherine.

Lastly, Chloe didn’t stop when Catherine asked her to keep distance already. However, the girl became hard headed and found a way to satisfy herself. She saw Catherine in Michael, so she made up with him also with Catherine in her mind, not Michael.

This entry will analyze Chloe’s actions and explain them one by one with the use of psychology. It was her who brought a huge damage into the family. The process will be done step by step.

a. Describe – What is the situation? Identify and classify behaviors and mental processes as accurately as possible.
b. Explain and Understand – Why is it happening? Propose reasons for such behaviors and mental processes.
c. Predict – Under what conditions is the behaviour/event likely to occur? Offer educated guess about how a given condition will affect behaviors and mental processes.
d. Control – How is the principle applied or what change in condition is necessary to prevent unwanted occurrence or to bring about a desired outcome?
 

PLOT SUMMARY

 

The Stewart family: Catherine, a doctor; David, a professor; Michael, a musician. They may seem fine, but the truth is, they have problems just like some other families. Then, there is this woman named Chloe whose occupation is an escort or a call girl. She’s been with a lot of men already. And she enters their world.
 

Catherine is already aging, and so is her husband. In that case, she’s always too conscious of her appearance thinking of it as a factor why she and David seemed to grow apart. Their son, Michael, is growing up fast as well but growing away from Catherine.

David misses his flight back home on the day of his birthday. That’s when Catherine’s suspicions grew more because of the text message she found in David's phone with a picture of David and a girl. She hires Chloe to seduce David to see whether her husband is cheating or not and to see David's reaction when Chloe will approach him. The deal: Catherine instructs Chloe of what to do and after each meet up with David, Chloe will report back to her.

 

The meetings continued even after Catherine decided that the second attempt of Chloe would be the last. But before the second meeting, Catherine and David are kind of going back to the way they used to be. However, Chloe said that something happened between her and David. Catherine became so emotional and Chloe took advantage of it. In the end, something happened between her and Catherine.

 

After that, Catherine asked Chloe to take some distance already, but she was too driven to just leave. Catherine decided to talk to David about what she is doing, so she told him to meet in a cafe and she also invited Chloe. When the two saw each other, David didn't recognize Chloe. Catherine realized that Chloe is just making up stories for her to be with Catherine and took advantage on her. Chloe went to Catherine’s house because she sees Catherine on Michael and so she approached him. Something happened between them. While they are making out, Chloe is looking at Catherine's stuffs and she is feeling Catherine on Michael, and when Catherine saw them together, a tragic ending happened to Chloe’s life.

 

In the end, Catherine still has Chloe’s affection because she uses the hair pin given to her by Chloe.

 

CHARACTERS
 

Catherine Stewart – played by Julianne Moore (Evolution, 2001), is a gynaecologist who becomes paranoid at the thought that her husband is having an affair, being untruthful; she became insecure and anxious at that point of time;

David Stewart – played by Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, 2005), is a professor of music, has a characteristic of flirting, but as he describe it to his wife for an instance in a restaurant, “just being friendly because people are usually rude to service people;”

Michael Stewart – played by Max Theriot (The Pacifier, 2005), is a musician, a pianist; doesn’t talk to his mom; kind of rebellious;

Chloe – played by Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia! 2008), is an escort, a prostitute

 

MOVIE REACTIONS
 

Many people don’t know how to talk to people to whom they have problems with - directly. They communicate to others with the use of a medium. In a group, one would ask another to relay a message to the other member. Or if they really don’t want to talk to them, they do inappropriate things: they backstab. Some just choose to stay quiet and observe.
 

Sometimes, these actions worsen an already worse situation. By beating around the bush, you kind of make things a lot complicated. Instead of talking to others personally and make things up and put an end to it, you add more to the difficulty of the situation.

In the movie Chloe, Catherine is having thoughts that her husband is being unfaithful. It led her to make a decision to hire a prostitute to be able to find out if her conclusion was correct. The situation was, “I want to hear the story” and not “I want to see it for myself.” So she didn’t really know if what Chloe was saying was true or not. In the end, she fell for Chloe’s trap; Catherine fell into Chloe’s hands and body.

I haven’t had a relationship yet so I don’t know how it feels to be jealous. But if it happens to me, I’m thinking, would I be able to talk to her face to face? Will I have the courage to ask a question if she’s seeing someone else? Then it came into my mind that I should not be judgmental. I think even psychologists will have a hard time dealing with it, thinking so hard of what would be the most appropriate way to solve the issue. A cheating partner… the thought hurts because you will keep on thinking what you have done wrong. Will you be able to fix the relationship? Who will she choose between the two of us?

It will never be easy to say until that moment arrives, but I pray that it won’t.
 

-Eric James H. Pastor

 

Trust is one of the most important factors that affect the relationship of two people. Without trust, you will be filled with thoughts that your partner is not truthful to you. Without trust, your mind and your heart will not be at peace. Catherine’s trust to David became weak because of what happened on David’s birthday.

In the movie, Catherine tested the truthfulness of her husband, so she hired Chloe to find out what will his husband do if Chloe will meet him.

Chloe is a manipulator. She will make different ways to get what she wants even if she will be in great danger. Chloe seeks for attention and because of that, she lied to Catherine so she can be with her. But Catherine believed on what Chloe is telling her. In short, Catherine trusted Chloe. Catherine did not verify the information reported to her by Chloe. She is not careful to whom she trust. Trust is very important so do not just give it away to anyone.

For me trust is easy to give away, but once it is broken, it is hard to bring it back. Catherine easily fell on Chloe’s trap. The movie is unexpected because it is executed as if Chloe’s stories are true. Maybe if Catherine talked to David about what she discovered on his cell phone, maybe this will not come into the point that Chloe will be in their life. And maybe Chloe will not be manipulating them.

If Catherine really loves David, she would ask him if he is with someone the night of his birthday. It should be a give and take relationship, I trust you and you trust me in return. The story of the couple is a typical story but Chloe made it complicated.

 

Trust, this is what Catherine lack for David. That’s what the root of all these, trust.
 

-Joshua Miguel A. Delos Santos

DISCUSSION

 

“I guess I’ve always been pretty good with words. In my line of business, it’s as important to be able to describe what I’m doing as it is to do what I’m doing, when to say what, what words to select. Some men hate to hear certain terms. They can’t stand specific moves and then they can’t live without others. It’s part of my job to know where to place my hands, my lips, my tongue, my leg, and even my thoughts. What kind of pressure, for how long, when to stop. I can become your first kiss or a torn out image from a Playboy magazine that you found when you were nine years old. Am I your secretary, or am I your daughter? Maybe I’m your seventh grade math teacher you always hated. All I know is that if I do it just right, I can become your living, breathing, unflinching dream, and then I can actually disappear. ”

 

This is how the movie begun. This is Chloe’s line. This is how she described her character in the film.

 

By hearing or reading it, you will learn a lot about her. She is a woman who gives service to people who wants excitement or happiness. She knows what she does and how to do her work. She is conscious in her line of business.

 

What’s wrong about her is that after meeting Catherine, she got emotionally attached to her. Catherine hired her for professional business because she wants to use her expertise in seduction in an investigation to prove whether David is truthful about their relationship. After Chloe met Catherine’s husband, she reported to Catherine immediately and she got paid for that.

 

The next day, Michael is being dumped by his girlfriend, and Catherine heard the conversation. Michael saw it so he slams the door in his mother’s face. Because of that, Catherine and David talked to each other. Catherine felt the love of her husband and realized that he is not cheating on him. But because Chloe got emotionally attached on her, she texted Catherine to meet her and she told her that she went out with her husband and they kissed in a hidden place. Catherine didn’t want to hear more, so she left. But it’s like Chloe has planned everything and she made up a little accident for her to spend time with Catherine more. That’s when she displayed delusion personality disorder.

 

Unlike most other psychotic disorders, the person with delusional disorder typically does not appear obviously odd, strange, or peculiar during periods of active illness. Yet the person might make unusual choices in day-to-day life because of the delusional beliefs. Expanding on the previous example, people who believe they are under government observation might seem typical in most ways but could refuse to have a telephone or use credit cards in order to make it harder for "those Federal agents" to monitor purchases and conversations. Most mental health professionals would concur that until the person with delusional disorder discusses the areas of life affected by the delusions, it would be difficult to distinguish the sufferer from members of the general public who are not psychiatrically disturbed. Another distinction of delusional disorder compared with other psychotic disorders is that hallucinations are either absent or occur infrequently.

 

An important aspect of delusional disorder is the identification of the form of delusion from which a person suffers. So we categorized Chloe’s delusion disorder as erotomanic form. Because in the erotomanic form of delusional disorder, the primary delusional belief is that some important person is secretly in love with the sufferer. The erotomanic type is more common in women than men. Erotomanic delusions may prompt stalking the love object and even violence against the beloved or those viewed as potential romantic rivals.

 

Like Chloe, she displayed an erotomanic form of delusion because she has a belief that Catherine is secretly in love with her and she finds David a romantic rival so she made up stories for Catherine and David fight and maybe she wanted them to separate.

 

But we also think that Chloe has a histrionic personality disorder.

 

A key feature of individuals with histrionic personality disorder is the lability and shallowness of their affection: HPD patients may quickly change from being very sad to very cheerful, and express both feelings equally dramatically. To others, however, these feelings may seem unreal or shallow. HPD patients seek to be the center of attention, and are unhappy when they are not. To attract attention they may be overly emotionally expressive, or use their appearance, perhaps by being flirtatious or inappropriately playful in interpersonal contact. They are quite extraverted and tend to perceive their relationships with others as more special than these others do. Five or more out of the eight criteria need to be met to satisfy the formal diagnosis.

 

Diagnostic Criteria for HPD
A pervasive pattern of excessive emotionally and attention seeking, beginning by a early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five or more of the following:
1. is uncomfortable in situation in which he or she is the center of attraction
2. interaction with others is often characterized by –inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
3. displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
4. consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
5. has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking of detail
6. shows self-dramatization, theatrically, and exaggerated expression of emotions
7. is suggestible, example easily influenced by others or circumstances
8. considered relationships to be more intimate than they are actually are

 

HPD is most frequently diagnosed in women, and when it is diagnosed in men it has been associated with homosexuality. This gender differential, however, may be more a product of our societal expectations than a true difference in occurrence. It has been suggested that HPD is more appropriately seen as a caricature of sex roles in general including extreme masculinity as well as extreme femininity.. the extreme of femininity is fairly commonly diagnosed as histrionic, whereas a caricature of masculinity is rarely diagnosed as having HPD even though he would meet the DSM-III-R criteria. Such a man would not be likely to seek treatment.

 

Chloe manifested this disorder by doing something “accidentally” and “innocently” to catch Catherine’s attention. She slipped from her bicycle and got wounded in front of Catherine’s eyes to have the doctor clean and dress it up for her. She told stories about David’s affair with her, which were not true, to keep Catherine coming to her.

 

A case like this is not easy to handle because the patient will flirt her psychiatrist.