"american Beauty" Film Psychology Essay

American Beauty: Lester Burnham and Colonel Frank Fitts Amanda Dunman Ventura College Psy V15 – Dr. Patricia Fox-West May 4, 2005

2 American Beauty: Lester Burnham and Colonel Frank Fitts “American Beauty,” the 1999 film directed by Sam Mendes, is a motion picture in which its characters struggle to control their destiny and find freedom, in different forms, within their own constructed world of dysfunctional perfection. The tag line “look closer” is an indication of the abnormalities to be found within the two American middle-class suburban families depicted in the film, the Burnhams and Fitts’. The fathers of these families, Lester Burnham and Colonel Frank Fitts, appear to be polar opposites – the former suffering from an adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct, the latter from severe internalized homophobia and anger management issues. One man is attempting to escape his stressful life events through reckless behavior, while the other tries to safeguard himself through military control and a deep-seeded, personal fear. However, when we do look closer, the viewer realizes the significance and parallel in one of Lester’s statements: “[We are] a commercial for normal when we are anything but.” The first character introduced to viewers is Lester Burnham, a 42 year old male who is generally depressed about every aspect of his life. He is married to a careerobsessed Carolyn Burnham who is the major breadwinner as a real estate agent, has spent fourteen years as a “whore for the advertising industry,” and has a teenage daughter whom he believes hates him. In one symbolic car scene we recognize his situation: Carolyn is driving (just like she “drives” the family), his daughter Jane is next to her, and Lester sits slouched in the backseat, avoiding further argument with his wife, visually becoming

3 unhappier and more desperate every second. When he goes to work he is asked by an efficiency expert to write a job description to justify his position at the company. This is Lester’s final straw. The threat to his job security was the stressful event that led to his maladaptive behavior, which was set to begin once the scene ended. Two catalysts that aided in and reinforced his acting out were Angela, Jane’s sexually preoccupied friend, and Ricky Fitts, the son of the new neighbors Colonel Frank and Barbara Fitts. When Lester is forced to attend Jane’s cheerleading event he is taken aback by Angela, who along with Ricky represents his yearning for freedom, respect, and beauty. When at another event he is forced to attend by his wife, he meets Ricky who reintroduces him to marijuana and self-determination by witnessing him casually quit his job. Angela’s flirtation and Ricky’s confidence advances Lester’s emotional reactions to his problems into active manifestations of his desires. Lester starts working out to impress Angela after eavesdropping and calling her and hanging up, smokes marijuana, blackmails his way out of his job into one with “the least possible amount of responsibility,” and buys the car he always wanted. The combination of Lester’s excessive behavior after the events of perhaps losing his job and existing family stressors, the significant impairment produced by his behavior, and the duration of his symptoms are implications of an adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct. Adjustment disorders are defined as “an emotional or behavioral reaction to an identifiable stressful event or change in a person’s life that is considered maladaptive or somehow not an expected healthy response (“Adjustment

4 Disorder.” United Behavioral Health, 2004).” A very common disorder, symptoms usually begin within three months of the stressors and last no longer than six months. Behavioral symptoms, for which Lester demonstrated, include: withdrawal, decrease in work performance (quitting his job), reckless behavior, acting out, and relationship problems (further driving a wedge between him and his wife and daughter) (“Adjustment Disorders.” n.d. PsychNet-UK). These are typical of those witnessed in adolescents diagnosed with adjustment disorder, however we see Lester identify with adolescence so much through his thoughts and actions in the film that this seems appropriate. The specification “with disturbance of conduct” refers to the violation of societal norms which for Lester includes nearly every act he took in reaction to his stress: lusting after the underage Angela and later nearly having sex with her, buying drugs, and blackmailing his company. Since a time frame within which the story takes place is not specified – except for Lester mentioning in the introduction that he will die in less than a year – the ability to diagnose his disorder as acute or chronic is rather dubious. Acute adjustment disorder lasts less than six months while chronic adjustment disorder may last six months or longer (PsychNet-UK, n.d.). The chronic specifier is only used in response to chronic events or stressors which, in this case, could be applied to Lester since he already had plenty of stressors before his job was in jeopardy. It would be tempting to say Lester had a midlife crisis and leave him undiagnosed. For two reasons this is incorrect. First, the notion of a midlife crisis as its

5 own mental disorder is unfounded. There was a debate in the making of the DSM-IV to categorize it as a subtype of an adjustment disorder as an unspecified type, but this obviously did not happen. If it had, a midlife crisis would still be considered an adjustment disorder. Secondly, a midlife crisis is defined as a “personal turmoil and coping challenges brought on by fears and anxieties about growing older”; more than twenty-five percent of Americans over age thirty-five think they have had a midlife crisis, but more than half of these were stressful life events (Susan Lang, “CU researcher finds 'midlife crisis' is less common than many believe.” Cornell Chronicle, 2001). Had Lester not been murdered, treatment for his adjustment disorder would be therapy, widely considered the most effective treatment. In treating an adjustment disorder, a therapist would help the patient learn new ways of coping with stress, better communication skills, find different activities, amongst other possibilities (PsychNet-UK, n.d.). Since Lester was concerned with the ability to control his life how he saw fit and his personal desires, individual sessions every other week of reality therapy may have been a good match. Reality therapy, established in the 1960’s by Dr. William Glasser, focuses on the human as a social being that is driven by our wants, not so much thinking about our needs (Padraig O’Morain, “Reality Therapy and Choice Theory.” n.d.). The three questions to ask the client are: What do you want? What are you doing to get what you want? Is it working? The therapist would then implement a workable plan to address these three areas. Though Lester was getting what he wanted, what he needed to do was examine his life more closely to realize where his problems were coming from, and try to

6 deal with them more directly rather than turn to outside influences that harmed his relationships with others. Next, the viewer becomes acquainted with the Fitts family, the new additions to the neighborhood headed by Colonel Frank Fitts. Right away the viewer realizes the type of man Frank is: haircut reminiscent of his days in the armed forces, ultra conservative dress, and glasses set low on his nose - his face revealing an expression of criticism as he reads the daily paper. This is not a man with whom to have an argument. He has clearly been married for many years to Barbara, a woman who has evidently detached from her surroundings a long time ago. Later in the film we see glimpses of his study adorned with an impressive gun collection and military memorabilia, most notably a piece of Nazi dinnerware. As quickly as we are able to visually assess Frank, the doorbell rings with two of the most unwelcome type of people standing on Frank’s doorstep. At first he does not comprehend that they are a homosexual couple that live a couple houses away. He proceeds to question them about their business with a suspicious eye, until a look of realization glazes over his face. We curiously do not see his reaction until later when he drives Ricky to school: “How come these faggots always gotta rub in your face? How can they be so shameless?” When he later watches Jim and Jim running with Lester he cannot refrain from commenting “What is this? A gay pride parade?” These are not genuine questions, but accusations representative of a man who finds so much comfort in the control he believes he has over his family, that he is distressed and fearful about the fact that he does not have the same control over the world outside his home.

7 Ricky Fitts perfectly sums up the situation observed in both families when he exclaims: “Never underestimate the power of denial.” Denial is a recurrent theme in the film that can be applied to all of its characters, but is a concept especially relevant to Colonel Frank Fitts. He denies the true nature of his 1950’s-like nuclear family he has tried so hard to preserve; Frank is in denial about his son, his wife, and his sexuality most of all. Colonel Frank Fitts is a homosexual suffering from internalized homophobia. In Western culture – particularly of the generation in which Frank was raised – men are supposed to deny and conceal their emotions. As a man whose parents most likely rigidly enforced masculine virtues of strength, physical toughness, and obedience to authority, anger became the only outlet for Frank. This explains why anger is the only way Frank reacts to situations in the film. This anger is only second to the fear of his sexuality, which is why Frank joined the military, has the quintessential manly gun collection, and never fails to reassure people of his masculinity as he finishes every introduction with “United States Marine Corps.” When we see Frank react to watching Ricky’s video of Lester and later on kiss Lester, they are moments he is frantic to erase with violent consequences. Homophobia has in several studies been debunked as a proper phobia as lacking the physiological and fearful reactions of a specific phobia (Keith Taylor, “No fear factor in ‘homophobia,’ study claims.” The Washington Blade, 2002). However, other studies insist that “there is a particular fear and animus toward homosexuality” and even the researchers that claimed homophobia lacks the fear criteria, still found close associations

8 between homophobic tendencies and worries of physical and moral contamination (Keith Taylor, 2002). It is therefore important to differentiate between sexual prejudice which originates from contempt (a more appropriate term for the majority that have it) and homophobia, as an emotional disorder treated as a subtype of sexophobia, the fear of the opposite sex. Colonel Franks Fitts’ hostility towards homosexuals originated from the dread of his own sexuality. As he watches the video of Lester working out and misinterprets Lester and Ricky together, he is facing his worst fears: confronting his sexuality and believing Ricky to be gay. When he screams at his son, fists in from of him, “I’d rather you be dead than be a fucking faggot” he is telling it to Ricky, but also to himself. If Colonel Franks Fitts had received gay supportive therapy when he was younger to help him understand the causes of his psychological distress, he might have become a different person. If he had attended cognitive behavioral therapy as an adult, Lester probably would not have died. The combination of the behavioral therapy technique of reducing connections between upsetting situations and habitual reactions plus altering thought patterns, characteristic of cognitive therapy, has been proven to be very effective in treating many disorders, including homophobia (John Winston, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: The Basics.” 2004). Individual sessions every other week combined with group therapy would have helped Frank to resign the fear of his sexuality and avoid aggressive outbursts. The film “American Beauty” contains characters that as a result of their psychological problems, are overwhelmed by their poor choices and the costs associated

9 with the consequences. Two of these characters, Lester Burnham who experiences an adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct and Colonel Frank Fitts, an internalized homophobic, exemplify why events happen in film as outcomes of their respective disorders. If these two men had received the treatment they needed, much unnecessary suffering on the part of all characters would have been prevented.

10 References Lang, Susan. (2001). CU researcher finds 'midlife crisis' is less common than many believe. Cornell Chronicle. April 29, 2005. http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/01/3.22.01/midlife_crisis.html

O’Morain, Padraig. (n.d.). Reality Therapy and Choice Theory. April 29, 2005. http://www.angelfire.com/ab/brightminds/tReality.html

Adjustment Disorders. (n.d.). PsychNet-UK. April 29, 2005. http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/adjustment_disorder.htm

Taylor, Keith. (2002). No fear factor in ‘homophobia,’ study claims. The Washington Blade. April 30, 2005. http://www.tampabaycoalition.homestead.com/files/703NorFearFactorInHomophobiaStudyClaims.htm

Adjustment Disorders. (2004) United Behavioral Health. April 29, 2005. http://www.unitedbehavioralhealth.com/pdf/Adjustment_Disorders.pdf

Winston, John. (2004). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: The Basics. April 30, 2005. http://www.cognitivetherapy.com/basics.html