She shows elements of an anxiety disorder with obsessive compulsive behaviors. She also manifests self-injurious behavior and some signs of an eating disorder. She dabbles with substance abuse. She has psychotic breaks if not outright psychosis.
Additionally, Nina's constant fixation on achieving perfection displays elements of an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. The movie provides no explanation of Nina's diagnosis, nor does it show her receiving treatment, which left interpretation of her mental illness to the audience.
Although symptoms would not occur as rapidly as they do in Nina Sayers in most common cases of schizophrenia, it is plausible. Therefore, Black Swan is a decent portrayal of a person's descent into paranoid schizophrenia.
Nina's disordered relationship with her roommate mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina's psychological breakdown. Erica is narcissistic, spending all of her time painting pictures of herself and completely infringing on Nina's space and well-being.
The night before she is set to perform, Nina becomes convinced that Lily is going to take her place. Her paranoia and mental strain cause her to hallucinate that she's physically turning into the role of Odile, the Black Swan, complete with red eyes and black feathers protruding from bird-like skin.
Nina Sayers - A case study in Paranoid Schizophrenia
Is Black Swan about BPD?
Rachel Loewy, assistant adjunct professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco, agrees that Nina's troubles could be consistent with a borderline personality disorder (in which a person has difficulty setting proper boundaries between herself and others) rather than a full-blown psychosis.
NOT REAL: Therefore, Lilly and Nina did not have actual sex (we know this because after sex, Lilly said something to Nina about being a ‘Good girl’ and then tried to smother her. Not real!)
Like other endings of Aronofsky movies, this incorporates surrealist elements as Lily's death was a hallucination. This wouldn't come as a surprise to viewers as the story had already dabbled in the protagonist showing similar behavior in the past.
Synopsis. The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young ballerina in her mid twenties, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a princess is turned into the White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her.
Does Nina in Black Swan have dissociative identity disorder?
Dissociative identity disorder concept is also applies to find in the scenes that indicate Nina's dissociative identity disorder. The result of this research found that there are three modes of signs in Black Swan. Those three modes of signs show that Black Swan tells about Nina's dissociative identity disorder.
Personality… childlike, insecure, and psychologically disturbed. The pressure of being the Swan Queen has been affecting Nina's behavior, and her perfectionism is starting to take a noticeable toll on her mental health.
Nina is a teenaged girl, and she is being sexually abused by Thomas and her mother. The world of professional ballet looks nothing like what we see in the movie because it isn't one: it's a ballet school, Thomas is an instructor, and the Swan Queen production is a one-night performance by students.
It turns out that Nina hallucinated the fight with (and subsequent murder of) Lily, and actually stabbed herself while in the throes of a psychotic episode. But this doesn't stop Nina from performing the role she's worked so hard to attain. Bleeding, she returns to the stage to perform the last act of the show.
NOT REAL: Therefore, Lilly and Nina did not have actual sex (we know this because after sex, Lilly said something to Nina about being a ‘Good girl’ and then tried to smother her. Not real!)
The two fight, breaking a mirror. Nina stabs her doppelgänger with a large shard of glass from the mirror, killing her. The body reverts to Lily. Nina hides the corpse in the bathroom and takes the stage, dancing flawlessly as Odile and seemingly turns into a black swan, her arms covered in feathers.
The story's simplicity (an up-and-coming ballet dancer earns the coveted main role of White Swan/Black Swan in a production of "Swan Lake") belies what's really going on: an internal/external struggle that touches on the duality of women's lives and asks what we're willing to sacrifice to achieve success.
Natalie Portman has transformed herself for many film roles, but nothing was as grueling as her Black Swan makeover. The actress shed an astonishing 20lbs from her already slight frame to play a ballerina in the 2011 film and admitted it put such a toll on her body that she thought she was going to die.
We know that Natalie Portman studied ballet as a kid and had a year of intensive training for the film, but that doesn't add up to being a ballerina. However, it seems that many people believe that Portman did her own dancing in Black Swan."
Hi. Her character did, but she didn't. That said, it was still extremely awkward for both of them, and they have spoken about their discomfort while shooting the scene quite a few times.
How many calories did Mila Kunis eat for Black Swan?
Mila Kunis has confessed that her diet was restricted to 1,200 calories per day while filming Black Swan. The actress - who shrunk down to 95lbs for her role as a ballet dancer in the film - revealed that she was in "hell" during filming and only ate foods that fit in her hand, reports the Daily Star.
How much dancing did Natalie Portman really do in Black Swan?
In a written statement, "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky said, "Here is the reality. I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film -- 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. Twenty-eight are her dance double Sarah Lane.
She still made it to America, and eventually had a small pandemic wedding with Mike. However, her married life made Natalie unhappy, which led to "stress eating." Natalie says she is on antidepressants, and gained 30 pounds following her arrival in the U.S.
