Dr. Alice Howland, also known as Julianna Moore, is a famous professor of linguistics at Columbia University. As words begin to escape her and she begins to get lost in her daily errands, Alice must face a life-changing diagnosis: early-stage Alzheimer's disease. The lives of Alice and her family face a nerve-wracking ordeal as this terminal degenerative neurological disease gradually progresses toward an inevitable end they all fear. Along the way, Alice struggles not only to combat the rot within, but also to use as much of her remaining time as possible to discover the adoration and harmony necessary to make life essentially advantageous. I have identified several theories to include in this article that are closely related to the main character of Still Alice. The genetic theory of aging is the first widely used theory in the film. Additionally, the psychosocial theory of integrity versus despair and the ecosystem theory also appeared in the film. Genetic theory tells us that life expectancy is to a large extent dictated by the qualities we inherit. According to the hypothesis, our lifespan is fundamentally decided from conception and depends to a large extent on our parents and their qualities. The integrity vs. despair stage begins when the maturing adult begins to deal with the issue of their mortality. The beginning of this stage is often triggered by life events, such as retirement, death of a spouse, loss of friends and colleagues, confronting a terminal illness, and other life changes. important jobs throughout life. During the wholeness versus despair stage, individuals look back on the existence they lived and left with either a feeling of satisfaction from a real existence lived everywhere, or a feeling of disappointment and discouragement in the face of a real existence wasted. Ecosystem theory or also known as ecological theory is concerned at a very fundamental level with the connection and association of life forms and their environment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayThe theory of integrity versus despair originated with Erik Erikson. Erik Homburger Erikson was of German origin and was an American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who spearheaded research in child psychology by formulating his developmental hypothesis with its "eight psychosocial stages". Erikson believed that character is created in a predetermined order through eight phases of psychosocial advancement, from early stages through adulthood. At each stage, the individual is faced with a psychosocial emergency or crisis that could have a constructive or pessimistic outcome on character development. As the hypothesis indicates, the effective completion of each stage brings about solid character and the attainment of fundamental ethics. This theory applies to social work because it sheds deep light on how an individual should develop socially, thereby transforming them into the individual you see today. The beginning of this particular stage can be triggered by life events, trauma, etc. So this theory relates to the film because we see the main character going through this specific stage towards the end of the film. Ecosystem theory was developed by the American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbrenner developed ecological systems theory toclarify how the intrinsic characteristics of a child and their environment combine to impact their development and growth. This theory can be applied to social work because an individual's environment can have a direct effect on development, causing them to interact with their environment in a different way than the next individual. I will analyze Dr. Alice Howland, a well-known linguistics professor. at Columbia University who has just turned 50 in the film "StillAlice." Howland presents herself as a good-looking 50-year-old. Howland is an unimposing woman, but not underweight. Howland remains dynamic in her work and public activity and, in addition to having a tumultuous existence, she seems optimistic Howland lives with her significant other, John, and the two have three grown children, all of whom live outside the home I believe. that Alice stays very well-groomed and goes to great lengths to ensure that she is fit and does not eat foods that could harm her body. In the film, we see that she loves running. the streets of the city to keep herself in excellent physical condition for a 50 year old woman When I see how Alice dresses, she likes to keep her style very simple and not stand out too much. goes to speak at another school, she wears a simple blouse, dress and heels. This also changes as we analyze the film more, she starts wearing more comfortable clothes as she doesn't go out as much after the diagnosis. Additionally, his tone and mood change drastically over the course of the film. At the beginning of the film, we see that she is light-hearted and always smiling, eager to be with family, and overall satisfied with her life and nothing was going to make her get off her high horse. When she discovered early onset Alzheimer's disease, her mood and tone during the film became darker. She is seen developing a quick temper towards her family, particularly her daughter Lydia Howland. She becomes dissatisfied with life and we see her doing things that are out of character. What brought Alice to the services were the patterns of inconsistency related to her memory that she noticed, which are starting to become much more frequent and it is taking effect. on her. One of the first instances in the film where we see her Alzheimer's begin to manifest is early in the film when she flew to speak at another school and was unable to form a word that she should have known to pronounce it. in front of the class. Alice took it upon herself to see a doctor and talk to him about her memory problems. He then does some exercises and asks her questions about her background and family medical history. She thought she might have a brain tumor, but of course that wasn't the case. Her family history of early-onset Alzheimer's disease dates back to her father who had the disease and it was unfortunately passed down to Alice. Alice didn't know her father very well and both of her parents are (in the film) deceased. She mentions that her father was an alcoholic and that she remained very distant from him and his residence. The neurologist explains to Alice and her husband John that the disease has been developing for at least 7 years without her realizing it. The film doesn't really tell us what past events led to his current state, aside from his family history. Alice explains to the chair of the department she teaches that "I struggled teaching last semester but I didn't realize how much it showed" when asked about the criticism she received on his classroom teaching. The intensity of the disease becomes more and more widespread as thefilm advances. For example, Alice is kicked out of college when she reveals the severity of her illness. She and John decide to go to their beach house away from home, which is when we see how intense the illness is. She begins to gradually forget, repeatedly asking John when he is going to a meeting and when Lydia is arriving. They were supposed to go for a run, but she doesn't remember where the bathroom is and wets her jeans. She cries because she no longer remembers where she seems to be. Alice's family history was briefly depicted in the film when she went to see the neurologist. Both of Alice's parents died, one from liver failure (father) and the other died in a car accident when she was only 18 (mother). Alice described calling him "incoherent and unconscious" during the latter stages of his life. It appears that her parents were separated or divorced because she mentioned that he lived in New Hampshire, which appeared to be far from the residence she resided in at the time he was alive. She mentions that her father died of cirrhosis, an advanced disease caused by many types of liver diseases and conditions, for example hepatitis and constant alcohol dependence. Alice's father was an alcoholic and also gave Alice early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice's social relationships were all fairly healthy at the start of the film, with no real signs of estrangement or anything negative. The only relationship in question I believe would be with his daughter Lydia, their relationship is very difficult. Early in the film, we see Alice visiting Lydia's home in California after she goes to speak at a local university. They go out to eat and Lydia chats with Alice about how her acting career is going and Alice then says "Lydia, don't you think it's time to reconsider things, you're so smart, there's so much more what you could do with your life." Alice disagrees with Lydia's life choices and believes that she should go to school like her other two children and have a "real career". Their relationship seems to fluctuate throughout the film and his condition ultimately brings them closer together. Alice also seems to only be with family and no friends in the film. After the beginning, all the relationships she developed changed over the course of the film. Alice and her husband John began to be very distant as her condition worsened and he barely wanted to be with her as she could be emotionally unstable at times. Alice is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University and was very good at her job and even created her own. book on linguistics entitled “From neurons to names”. She was well respected in her department and had been teaching the subject for some time. Her performance before starting was excellent and she seemed to enjoy her job and was in a comfortable position in the department. We see that he was asked to speak at UCLA about his knowledge of linguistics and how young children communicate with adults. With the gradual onset of symptoms of the disease, her performance in her classes dropped and students began complaining to the course department, leading her to confess to early onset Alzheimer's disease. The ministry let her go and she was now forced to accept the illness and prepare for the worst. In the film, we don't really know his medical history beyond the brief description of his family's medical history. His current condition is early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease, a very rare disease that affects an individual at an earlier age than usual and whose symptoms appear to worsen over time.alarming rate. This structure is exceptionally rare. Two or three hundred individuals possess qualities that legitimately contribute to Alzheimer's disease. These people begin to show symptoms of the disease around their 30s, 40s, or 50s. An exceptionally small number of people with Alzheimer's disease have an early form. Many of them are between 40 and 50 years old when the disease sets in. There are no signs of drug or alcohol abuse regarding Alice in the film, they drink wine traditionally, but that's it. Before the diagnosis, Alice appeared to be a very healthy person, with no signs of other major health problems. She has to take different medications in the film to suppress the symptoms of the disease named Aricept and Namenda. Aricept improves the capacity of nerve cells in the brain. It works by preventing the breakdown of a compound called acetylcholine. People with dementia generally have lower levels of this compound, which is important for memory, reasoning, thinking, and solving processes. Namenda (memantine)decreases the activities of synthetic substances in the mind that can worsen the manifestations of Alzheimer's disease, primarily used for very severe dementias leading to Alzheimer's disease. Alice also has trouble sleeping during the movie and has asked her doctor about different medications strong enough to put her to sleep. The theories we chose to work with as part of our analysis have a direct connotation with the film and the main character. situation. I believe theories help us understand why certain things happen in the film and allow us as social work students to dissect the problem and understand why the character is behaving a certain way, etc. When I watch different scenes during the movie, then come back to theories that I can easily describe with little to no confusion and understanding. There are scenes in the film that helped me understand the client (Alice) and the theory. Erikson's Ego Integrity vs Despair is the stage where people reflect on the life they have lived and come away with either a feeling of fulfillment from a life well lived or a feeling of regret and despair from a life wasted. One scene related to this theory is when Alice gave her speech near the end of the film. Alice was completely satisfied with her accomplishments in life, but she was also embarrassed by what she had to deal with since suffering from the disease. Alice deals with her integrity and her despair and lives in fear of no longer being the same woman everyone knew and loved. She gave a compromise speech that dispelled fear, that she had accomplished much in life and that she was happy with the woman she had become and that she would no longer be hampered by illness. This scene helps me understand the theory because it is described as a stage where people are thinking about a crisis. Alice suffers from early onset Alzheimer's disease and never saw it coming. She is indeed going through a crisis and this causes her to reflect on her accomplishments and realize that she lived a good life before her crisis. Besides, the Genetic Theory of Aging is another theory that I was able to analyze in this film and it was very widespread. When Alice goes to see her neurologist with John, they discover that the disease was passed down from a family member, making it a family disease. This also means that since Alice has the gene, she might have been able to pass it on to her offspring as well. There is a scene where Anna, Alice's daughter, calls her and tells her that she.