Sunday, May 06, 2007

movie review "Crazy Love"

I saw a movie today that I would recommend to those of you who enjoy seeing up close the extent to which love and lust makes people do wildly irrational things. The good thing about this movie was that it was a documentary, so it wasn't a romantic fantasy. The bad thing was that it is one of those "independent" films, so most of you probably won't find it screened anywhere near you.

The film is called "Crazy Love" and it follows the course of the relationship between Bert Pugach and Linda Riss. This couple were often on the front page of NY tabloids in the late 1950s, and again in the early 70s. He was totally obsessed with her but his wife wouldn't give him a divorce, so she broke it off with him. When she became engaged to another man, Burt hired someone to throw lye into her eyes so that no one else would be with her. Bert eventually got arrested and went to jail for fourteen years for that.

By the time he got out of jail his wife had divorced him. He continued to pursue Linda, who was now almost totally blind. At the time the movie was made, which was last year, Burt was 79 and Linda was 68, and they had been married for 33 years.

It was interesting because he, obviously, is a crazy obsessive narcissist, who cares not what he does to people, while she really seemed to want to get rid of him. But after she was disfigured and blind she made the best deal she could, which was to live off of him and have him take care of her for the rest of her life.

The last fifteen minutes of the film show her nagging the hell out of him, and he seeming to still love just being with her ( even though he did cheat on her too).

I have seen many couples in therapy in which the man is crazy-possessive and jealous, but the women seems to take it as an indication that he really cares. In general, we in the therapy field don't seem to deem this kind of relationship very "healthy." But, sometimes, what the hell do we know.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

And the moral of the story is...never mess around with married folks. They're nuts.

Ms. Meander said...

it's amazing how even the most totally screwed up marriage can always end up looking perfectly serene once you find something worse to compare it to.

this one, though, i think it wins. that's the most screwed up marriage ever. and if not, i'm not sure i want to contemplate what's worse. it's amazing what people can do to one another when they are so blinded by their own wants and needs. i mean, how can you happily gaze into eyes you have blinded in your own selfishness? you would think that would just be an agony of guilt every time. can he possibly truly love her? it doesn't seem like it to me. it seems like she must be very objectified by him, otherwise the empathy for her feelings would be excruciating to him. wouldn't it?

Fid said...

A Chemical Imbalance

Neither GlaxoSmithKline or the MHRA can give answers as to what constitutes a proper chemical imbalance of serotonin in the brain - weird because Seroxat is prescribed for this 'disorder'

The only thing that I can see is that Seroxat actually causes the chemical imbalance rather than rectifies it - A genius piece of marketing by GSK.

Prescribe a drug

Let the patient get hooked on the drug

Play down the risks by producing clinical trial studies beneficial to GSK

Employ ghost writers and patient support groups to back up the benefits of taking Seroxat

Robustly deny Seroxat causes aggression, suicidal tendancies etc

Always settle out of court for any litigation

Infiltrate the Medicines Regulatory Agency with former employees of GSK

Fund the government

Financially secure to research and market more SSRi type drugs

Credit where it is due, the marketing team at GlaxoSmithKline are without doubt highly skilled at manipulating doctors and the general public.

They don't even klnow how Seroxat works - they are just pleased that it does work. Cases where it hasn't worked - infact quite the reverse, seem to go unoticed - until the invention of the internet that is.

The MHRA are proud of the Yellow Card system - Why?

It is a completely flawed system and they only act on less than half of the Yellow Card reports.

A more robust system would be for the MHRA to employ a person or persons with a basic grasp of internet seaching. Then, they will see the REAL suffering from the REAL people.

Alas, they have ties to GlaxoSmithKline, namely Alistair Breckenridge and Ian Hudson. If they see GlaxoSmithKline have duped the public then they themselves have been duped by messrs Breckenridge and Hudson and that would cast a serious dark shadow on the MHRA's integerity.

They (The MHRA) have been investigating GlaxoSmithKline for nigh on four years now - my guess is they are waiting for a 'busy news day' until they release their findings. This way the story will be pushed to some small article in the tabloids.

It is utterly shameful of any human being to cause human suffering. Both GlaxoSmithKline and The MHRA have continued to deny Seroxat is harmful in the adult population - forget the clever spin 'dangerous in young adults'.

GlaxoSmithKline are currently being sued through the courts both here in the UK and in the United States. It now needs a firm of solicitors with huge balls to sue the MHRA. There is enough evidence I'm sure to successfully bring them to trial.

It will happen


Bob

Seroxat Sufferers
http://fiddaman.blogspot.com