Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) | Mental Health & Personality

hello this is dr grande today's question asks if i can analyze the mental health and personality factors that may be at work with the fictional character travis bickle from the 1976 movie taxi driver so i'll issue a spoiler alert for taxi driver just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so i'll start here with a summary of the movie and then i'll move to the mental health and personality factors so moving to the summary travis bickle is a 26 year old former united states marine who lives in new york city he served in the vietnam war and was honorably discharged in may of 1973. he describes his educational level as some here and there so i take that to mean a fairly low educational level pickle takes a job driving a taxi cab overnight because he believes it'll help him cope with his insomnia he works quite a bit sometimes for 12 hours at a time he works six to seven days a week he has a number of mental health problems in addition to the insomnia including depression anger management problems social awkwardness and paranoia he seems to be looking for a sense of purpose in his life he wants to be something greater than he is as he drives around new york city at night he writes these little phrases down in a diary that he keeps like positive concise thoughts also when he's driving his cab he runs into a number of individuals who have difficulty obeying the law people committing theft people involved in prostitution people struggling with substance use and he starts to fantasize about eradicating these populations pickle notices a woman named betsy played by civil shepherd at a campaign office for a presidential candidate named charles palentine he watches her from his cab for a while before going into the campaign office and pretending to offer support to the candidate he asks her if she'll have coffee with him she does and then he asks her to go out on a date she consents but he takes her to a theater that plays less than wholesome material and she becomes upset and refuses to go out with him again with his mental health symptoms aggravated he buys a number of firearms from a guy named ez andy specifically he buys four pistols a smith wesson model 29 this is a 44 caliber six shot revolver the same one carried by clint eastwood in several of the dirty harry movies he buys a smith wesson model 36 this is a 38 caliber five shot it's interesting because robert nero used the same gun in the 2019 movie the irishman he buys a smith and wesson model 61 escort this is a 22 caliber semi-automatic not a colt 25 caliber as was indicated in the movie this weapon would be carried by robert de niro in the 1990 film goodfellas and we see he purchases an astra constable this is a 380 acp automatic cold pistol not a walther ppk as was indicated in the film the same model was also featured in goodfellas but it was carried by ray leota's character there were some continuity errors in the film where they showed guns later as if they were the same firearms for example they did show a walther ppk in the film when they meant to show the astra constable now we see that bickle tries to get in shape through these intense workouts he holds his arm over a flame i guess to test his resistance to pain and he tries to look intimidating as he practices drawing weapons in the mirror on one occasion bickle goes into a store and a man tries to rob it he shoots the robbery incapacitating and maybe killing him it's not clear although it does seem like he's dead he tells the owner of the store that he doesn't have a permit for the firearm and the owner tells bickle that he'll take care of it and he takes the weapon from bickel then the owner proceeds to beat the robber with a pipe after this incident which would have disturbed almost anybody we see that bickle goes right back to his routine like nothing happened right so we see the low neuroticism at play here after this he shaves his head giving himself a mohawk and he goes to one of charles valentine's speeches but the secret service notices him as he's pulling out a weapon and he runs away it appears as though he was going to kill palentine he had done some scouting before in the movie around charles valentine's speeches after this he becomes preoccupied with a 12 year old girl named iris played by jodie foster who is being exploited by a pimp named sport played by harvey keitel bickle pays for her time but does not do anything but talk he tries to get her to leave sport and go back to her parents iris won't cooperate with bickle so he starts to think of ways to protect her by force bickle returns to the building where iris works shoots sport in the stomach with the 38 then enters the building and shoots one of the bouncers with the 44 magnum blowing off four of the bouncer's fingers sport even though he's wounded manages to point his own 38 caliber revolver at bickle from behind and shoot him in the neck he's using a smith wesson model 10 that's the same firearm used by that robber pickle shoots sport with the 44 magnum drops that weapon switches back to the 38 and shoots the bouncer in the body bickle is ascending the stairs when the bouncer comes up and confronts him bickle points the 38 at him but does not fire now as this is going on iris's customer a mobster is overhearing this commotion and he comes out of iris's room and fires a shot into bickel's upper right arm at point-blank range with a 38 this was also a smith and wesson model 36 but it was blued instead of nickel-plated this causes bickel to drop his 38 bickel then deploys this slide mounted 22 caliber automatic so he had put this on a drawer slide so he could fit it up his sleeve he fires this several times at the mobster killing him the bodyguard is still yelling at him and grabbing him bickle stabs him with a knife that he had taped to his boot then uses the mobster's 38 caliber to kill the bouncer with a single shot to the head he takes that same revolver and tries to end his own life but it is out of ammunition as is his 22 caliber automatic even though if it was really out of ammunition the slide would have locked back and in the movie the slide is still forward he sits down on iris couch the police enter and point a weapon at him it's another smith and wesson model 10. pickle points his finger like in the shape of a gun at his head and makes it look like he's firing as he smiles at the officers after this we see that bickel is not charged and is actually considered a hero when he's in the hospital he gets a letter from iris's parents they have her back and they're quite happy about that he sees betsy again when she gets into his cab she's now willing to talk to him and she mentions that she read about him in the newspaper pickle drops her off without charging her for the ride now the people involved in production and direction of this film have said that this ending was supposed to be real not something from bickle's imagination although of course it seems highly unrealistic now moving to the mental health and personality factors let's take a look at travis bickle's personality profile using the five factor model i remember the five factors through the acronym ocean openness to experience conscientiousness extroversion agreeableness and neuroticism with openness to experience we see that bickle's level is low he's really not that intellectually curious not particularly creative although he did use that drawer slide to hide that weapon based on his selection of movies he doesn't appear to have an appreciation of art it really seems to be just the opposite he doesn't seem to understand how people might be offended by those films under certain circumstances as far as conscientiousness he does seem to be a productive worker but he's also impulsive and reckless he was almost arrested at that campaign headquarters after confronting betsy and of course he committed a triple homicide even though he wasn't prosecuted as far as extroversion his level is low he's not outgoing or talkative he isn't particularly friendly and he has few positive emotions although he is somewhat assertive at times like when he's committing murder he's sensation seeking and he maintains a high level of activity now even though we see a split with the facets like some high and some low overall i think his level would still be low with agreeableness his level is low he is not trusting modest empathic or altruistic on the other hand he is straightforward almost to a fault but his overall score would be low as i indicated now with neuroticism his level is mid-range he has difficulty resisting temptation some anger management issues and he's depressed but he really doesn't seem anxious he was able to engage in violent activities like the shootout at the end of the movie and remain amazingly calm as far as mental disorders i think that in this film they're trying to portray him as having post-traumatic stress disorder it would explain the insomnia the negative mood and being hyper-vigilant he could also have depression but it's not really clear in addition to ptsd and or depression his behavior aligns with personality pathology bickle is highly judgmental he is disgusted by others who he considers to be filth like when he has to clean out the back seat of his cab and he complains about all the fluids that are deposited there he thinks of himself as one of the only people who is actually pure and good when the guy at the taxi company is asking him about his driving record he responds by saying it's clean real clean like my conscious among his friends the other cab drivers he's not connected in the conversation it's like he's distracted and he doesn't realize how he appears to them so there's a lack of insight also referred to as anasagnosha when he's having coffee with betsy he confronts her right away he says i think you're a lonely person not a happy person i think you need something then he starts to disparage her co-worker you have no connection with the guy he doesn't respect you after this he pivots to asking her to go see a movie with him when she noticed that it was a less than polite movie he said a lot of couples see this movie so again just a disconnect he didn't understand what people's preferences really were he wasn't good at empathizing during his encounter with palentine when palentine was writing in bickle's cab bickle doesn't really seem to realize how disturbing his narrative was like he was talking and palantine was being understanding but bickle was taking things too far and didn't really connect with that palentine was still kind to him even though he was clearly a little concerned with bickle's narrative after being rejected by betsy he confronts her at work saying that she's going to hell he believes that she's just like the others cold and distant now that statement just like the others i think is important because it taps into the idea that he thought the wider population was evil so it kind of points back to that paranoia bickle has odd mannerisms beliefs and thinking like when he said i got some bad ideas in my head and he's focused on violence and negative aspects in life in general there is a theme where he seems to believe that he's going to be the victim or he already is the victim again of these evil people so there's some conspiratorial thinking going on almost like he's so worried about it that he's trying to promote a confrontation that he thinks people want to have with him like he's going to beat them to the punch as indicated by the line you talking to me one of the most famous lines in movie history biko is deterministic as indicated by the line now i see it clearly my whole life is pointed in one direction i see that now there has never been any choice for me so really he's being irresponsible he's making it seem like his life is predetermined and that absorbs him of any wrongdoing biko is profoundly lonely like when he says loneliness has followed me my whole life everywhere he doesn't like that other people try to attract attention to themselves for example he said a person shouldn't dedicate his life to morbid self-attention i believe that someone should become a person like other people so taking this all together we see a variety of personality pathology that is evident with bickle symptoms of narcissism like a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy symptoms of paranoia the odd thinking and mannerisms the fact that he chooses solitary activities he's emotionally cold detached and has flat affect he has limited social skills he is inflexible about areas of morality and he's stubborn his behavior doesn't line up with any single personality disorder rather he has features from a number including paranoid schizoid schizotypal anti-social narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive the obsessive-compulsive is seen when he's being strict about areas of morality from a developmental perspective pickle is trying to fit in he's trying to play by the rules he approaches betsy thinking they can have a romantic relationship he works long hours driving the cab trying to make a lot of money but at some point it's not working and he gives up he can't find meaning in his life through ordinary living so he starts plotting pass to greatness or fulfillment he plans on killing palantine and rescuing iris even though of course it would be difficult to actually do both he would be happy just to be able to complete one ultimately he achieves the latter and somehow is permitted to remain free and have that victory which of course as i mentioned is not realistic given the circumstances and i think this really detracted from the film even though those three men were committing felonies bickle would have been convicted for committing homicide now kind of stepping back and looking at all this as i mentioned bickle doesn't fit into one category i think the closest category however would be anti-social he probably had depression and other specified personality disorder mixed personality features this movie featured an interesting character in travis pickle but not one that was realistic it reminds me of another movie inspired by taxi driver joker with joaquin phoenix just as was the case with that movie i really didn't enjoy taxi driver i watched it many years ago probably in the early 90s and then again a few days ago to prepare for this video i didn't like it either time i thought maybe when i watched it more recently i would have found it more appealing but that didn't happen there were aspects of the movie that i did like the setting new york city and the cinematography was pretty good it was the mental health part that i felt didn't work i believe that was a key component for a movie like this so if they can't get that dialed in the movie is going to misfire which i think is a fitting way to put it considering they really couldn't seem to get anything right with the firearms either right so we see quite a few weaknesses in this film but as i mentioned again an interesting character that did have a development over the course of the movie that was somewhat compelling those are my thoughts on travis pickle from taxi driver please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: ILuFmwJEJdw

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020