Diagnostic Review of One Hour Photo

            When diagnosing films I found it to be quite difficult.  You would think it would be easy, but in the end it is difficult because you are not talking to the person you are supposed to be diagnosing first hand.  You are just watching what they are doing in the film.  Some people feel that being an observer is better than interviewing the diagnosee, but for me personally I would rather talk to them and learn of the emotions they were feeling during the various times of the crimes or dramatic outbursts.  For me it is very difficult to give brief synopsis because I pay attention to great detail.  To me everything is of great importance and so breaking something down to make it a fast explanation is just not possible for me.  My “brief” synopsis for each of these films is going to be the explanation of the entire film from start to finish and then the last few paragraphs will be my diagnoses.  I will put in bold print what are the “more” important things to look at when looking for diagnostic criteria.

             This movie is about an older gentleman who was molested, abused and forced to have photos taken of him during the sexual acts when he was a child.  You do not learn this important fact until the very end of the film.  What you get a feel for throughout the film is that this older man, Sy, craves to be a part of a seemingly perfect family.  He stalks the family from the time Mr. and Mrs. Yorking get married till his is arrested.

            Sy works in the photo department of the Savmart and has for the past 11-13 years.  He can tell you about nearly all of the people who come in to have their photos developed just by looking at their photos.  He does not approve of many of them.  Sy looks forward to seeing one set of customers however.  The Yorking family is Sy’s ideal family.  He has been developing their photos since before their son Jakob was born.  Whenever Mrs. Yorking brings in their photos to be developed Sy will give them special deals even though he is not allowed to do so.  He will also make triple prints of all of their photos and take one of the print sets home and place them in a collage on one of his apartment walls.

            Something that appears to be important throughout this film is that everything that has to do with Sy is white and I mean everything.  As the film progresses Sy starts to befriend Jakob and stalking Mrs. Yorking.  At some time during the film a woman that Sy recognizes, but cannot remember how, comes into the Savmart to develop some photos.  About this time the manager of Savmart notices that a large amount of printer paper is unaccounted for in the inventory along with the fact that a disposable camera was given away for free.  The manager calls Sy into his office and fires him because he knows and suspects that it is Sy.  Sy cracks mentally when this happens to him, but he is given one more week to work in his beloved photo department.  During that last week he starts snapping at people, distancing himself and being less personable; he also discovers the woman that he had recognized is on the same baseball team as Mr. and Mrs. Yorking.  He goes to the store and looks through her photos to find that she and Mr. Yorking are having an affair.  Sy loses it even more when he discovers this and sets out to break the family apart.  He sneaks a photo from the woman’s packet into Jakob’s packet of photos so Mrs. Yorking will see that her husband is cheating on her.  Mrs. Yorking does see the photo, but does not leave her husband and Sy does not understand this.  When Mrs. Yorking does nothing Sy decides to take matters into his own hands.

            As Sy is leaving the Savmart as an employee for the last time he goes to the Knife aisle and steals a pretty large sized knife.  Sy goes home, practices taking photos, scratches Mr. Yorking’s face off of all of the photos on his wall collage and makes plans for what you think will be a murder.  He takes his practice film to Savmart to have them developed.

            Yoshi, the young man trained by Sy and his friend develops Sy’s photos and takes them to the manager; since the photos are of a little girl and they know Sy has no family to speak of.  The manager calls the police and gives them information about Sy.  The police go to Sy’s apartment and see the collage.  After going to Sy’s apartment they go to the Yorking house to try and put them under protective services, but Mr. Yorking is not there so the detectives have Mrs. Yorking call her husband to try and get him home.  He is not in the office so she tells the man on the other side of the phone she knows about the affair and she needs the current location of her husband.  She is given the information and the police go to the hotel where Mr. Yorking is.  As all of this is going on Sy goes to the hotel and gets the room information of Mr. Yorking and then purchases a room on the same floor.  Sy tricks the woman into opening the door and then forces them to get fully undressed and continuously tells them to do various poses naked.  The reason they do these poses is because Sy is threatening them with the knife he stole.  You think that as Sy poses them he takes a photo and you cannot help but wonder what he will do with the photos.

            After chasing Sy down the officers take him into custody and that is when you discover Sy’s dark past.  You cannot help but feel sorry for him.  Sy did not kill or physically injure Mr. Yorking or the woman.  You are lead to believe Sy took photos of Mr. Yorking and the woman doing sexual acts but in reality he just took photos of things around the room and it makes you wonder if all Sy was trying to do was teach Mr. Yorking a lesson and help him realize just how important his family should be to him.  Sy still wishes that he was a part of the Yorking family and that they would accept him just the way he was since that is not what his own family did.

            When watching this film I thought at first Sy might have had Antisocial Personality Disorder, but as the film went on I realized that he had 301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder.  The reason I think this is because he stalks the family, makes copies of their family photos, and looks through old photos and claims that the people in them are his family.  He even tells people that the Yorking family is his family as well.  Sy actually imagines himself inside their house, wearing their clothes, drinking their alcohol, being friendly with their dog, and watching their TV.  After Sy is fired from his job at Savmart he starts to lose his sanity; his temper becomes short, he dreams that he is standing in an all white empty Savmart and is wearing white clothes; all of a sudden while standing in the center of an aisle his eyeballs start to gush blood and he opens his eyes, which are red, and screams which causes him to wake up.  Something that is also interesting is Sy has a routine he follows every morning and night.  He never changes this routine so being fired from his job causes him to have to change this routine.  Just as well to take note of, is the fact that most people find Sy to be socially awkward; Sy is very good with photos and developing them to perfection, but he is not very personable.  Knowing all of this I stick by my diagnosis of 301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder.

301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of insanity of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1)  Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in criterion 5.

(2)  A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationship characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

(3)  Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

(4)  Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

(5)  Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

(6)  Affective instability due to a marked reactivity  of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

(7)  Chronic feelings of emptiness

(8)  Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

(9)  Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

By: Samantha LeFils