Psychological Disorders Displayed in "The Shawshank Redemption" 

    "The Shawshank Redemption" is a film full of inspiration and hope.  It is the story of how no matter what your circumstances are you can always make the best of them. Even though he was falsely accused, Andy Dufrenes maintained a hopeful spirit and always affected people in a positive way.

     "The Shawhank Redemption" (1994, directed by Frank Darabont) is a story of hope in which banker Andy Dufrenes (Tim Robbins) is convicted of the murder of his wife and her secret lover.  He is found guilty and given a life term in Shawshank prison where he meets a fellow convict named Red (Morgan Freeman). Andy and Red become the best of friends. Andy possessed something Red did not, and that was hope. Red has lived in prison so long he is said to have been "institutionalized" meaning prison is all he can remember and he no longer knows what to world is like outside the walls of prison. Andy is a very smart man so he befriends the warden and uses his banking abilities to help him with taxes and other paperwork. The warden grows to trust Andy with almost anything. Being the brilliant man he is, Andy devises a plan to escape Shawshank. One rainy night he crawled through the tunnel he dug with the rock hammer Red had given him. He stopped at nothing to get out of that prison, he even crawled through sewage, but when he was finally free it was all worth the suffering he endured.  Because he handled the warden's finances, he was able to wire money to a fake person's bank account that he was later able to access. Andy Dufrenes displayed great amounts of courage and perseverance. He was a leader and a great role model, he showed all the other prisoners that while guards can lock you body away they could never imprison your soul.

      There two major psychological disorders displayed in "The Shawshank Redemption," such as institutional syndrome and prison sexuality. Institutional syndrome is "deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons, or other remote institutions."  This disorder is not uncommon in people who live in institutions for extended periods of time. Because the sufferers of institutional syndrome do not know how to handle themselves in the world outside of the institution they are used to, they often develop other psychological disorders such as anxiety disorder or depression. People who suffer from institutional syndrome often feel depressed or dehumanized. Prison sexuality also appears in “The Shawshank Redemption.”  Prison sexuality is “sexual relationships between confined individuals or those between a prisoner and a prison employee.” Because prisons are separated by gender, often times the sexual relations consist of individuals of the same gender. This does not necessarily make the prisoner a homosexual, but in certain drastic cases their only option for sexual pleasure is a member of the same gender.

     In the film "The Shawshank Redemption," several different characters accurately portray the psychological disorders known as institutional syndrome and prison sexuality. Displaying institutional syndrome, Brooks (James Whitmore) did not know how to act in culture outside Shawshank Prison. He was put in a half way house that had all the amenities a college dorm has. Brooks was given a job at the local grocery store where the manager did not like him because of his slow work ethic. In a letter to his friends still living in jail he said “The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.” Brooks had lived in the prison for so long and had grown accustom to the job he had as the librarian that he was not able to keep up with the hustle and bustle of a grocery bagger. Later in his letter, Brooks made it clear that he wished he were back in Shawshank Prison because he jokingly planned to bring a gun to work and shoot the manager in order to go “back home.” Sadly, the pressures of the stressful fast paced world overtook Brooks and lead him to commit suicide. Red summed up what happened to Brooks very well when he said, “These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. After long enough, you get so you depend on them. That's "institutionalized." Prison sexuality is present in “The Shawshank Redemption” as well. Boggs, another inmate, is one character who seeks other men for his sexual desire. One would not call him a homosexual because if he had the option for a woman to fulfill his sexual wants he would have chosen her over a man. Due to the fact that prisons are not co-ed Boggs was left with no choice and was more or less forced to resort to men for sexual pleasure. Boggs has a group of inmates he is close with who share his interest in men called “the sisters.” The sisters harassed Andy Dufenes several times through out the film. They attempted to force him to perform oral sex but Andy talked his way out of it. They used brute force with their victims and intimidated them by outnumbering their “prey.” “The Shawshank Redemption” did a fine job of accurately describing institutional syndrome and prison sexuality.

     Through "The Shawshank Redemption" we can learn of many things such as the psychological disorders, institutional syndrome and prison sexuality and the uplifting message of hope and perseverance. We learn most about institutional syndrome from the elderly character, Brooks. Boggs and “the sisters” best teach prison sexuality. Last but certainly not least, we learn about hope and perseverance from the honorable, brilliant man, Andy Dufrenes.