The Aviator is a wonderful film by Scorsese starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes who is not only a successful and powerful businessman, but also a mastermind engineer during the early years of the 20 th century. While Howard Hughes has managed to, in the public domain rise to fame and amass huge fortune as an aviation pioneer who help establish and propel TWA into a major global airline, he in private is a tormented man suffering from paralyzing depression and phobias, which eventually consumes him leading to his eventual downfall. This paper, using American Psychiatric Association's (2013) “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)” , carries out a competency –based assessment model that includes a full DSM-5 diagnosis of the film’s main character, Howard Hughes. According to the DSM-5 diagnosis criteria (Gluck, 2017) , this paper asserts that Howard Hughes’ psychiatric diagnosis is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
In order to determine whether or not an individual meets the specific OCD criteria as prescribed by DSM, Gluck (2017) and Waugh et al. (2017) , argue that the symptoms of such an individual must meet not only the general, but also the specific attributes of OCD. For an OCD diagnosis, a patient must meet the general criteria which include having compulsions and obsessions. Further, these compulsions must significantly affect one’s day-to-day lives. An individual must or must not recognize that their compulsions and obsessions are either unreasonable or excessive (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Gray, 2016) . Similarly, a patient’s obsessions must certify the specific criteria including being repetitive, persistent, and intrusive thoughts, urges, images or thoughts that result in distress.in fact, these thoughts must not only focus excessively on real world challenges in the patient’s life. The patient must not attempt to unsuccessfully ignore or suppress these disturbing urges or thoughts. Again, a patient might or might not know that his or her mind generates these urges /thoughts and that they are not a real threat (Waugh et al., 2017) . In the same breadth to be diagnosed for OCD, a person’s compulsions must also meet specific criteria including the repetitive and excessive ritualistic intuitions that one feels must actualize or something wrong might occur. These ritualistic and repetitive compulsions must go on for at least one hour each day additionally, the patient must be carrying out these mental or physical rituals as a way of coping with the severe anxiety resulting from the obsessive and excessive thoughts (Gluck, 2017) .
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While Hughes appears to be functioning quite well for the most parts of his life, he seems to have been portraying signs of compulsive and obsessive behaviors that at times were severe and almost incapacitating. Most of these symptoms that affected Hughes were clearly classic, especially his fears associated with contamination. The source of these fears seems to be from his childhood when his mother told about an epidemic and that he wasn’t really safe. Early on in the film, Hughes’ behaviour such as his insistence of only using unopened bottles of milk or make orders of the same food every time (Scorsese, 2004) , suggest that his symptoms were relatively mild. As he grows older, in his early adulthood, Hughes seems to get more uncomfortable as we see in one scene where he over-washes his hands; way over what will be considered by many people as necessary and sufficient. This is a classic indication of his obsession with absolutely sterile and clean hands. Clearly, he has obsessions and compulsions, which are clearly affecting his day-to-ay life and he clearly does not realize that they are unreasonable or excessive. In this case, it is safe to conclude that Hughes satisfies DSM-5 general criterial for diagnosing OCD.
As the film progresses, Hughes’ symptoms seem to worsen. For instance, there is a scene later on in the movie where Hughes become extremely irritated and disgusted with a business partner for having a speck in his jacket which was almost unnoticeable; in fact, Hughes refuses not just to speak to but also to look at and do business with the individual the man cleans up. In this instance, it is clear that Hughes compulsions meet the specific criteria for OCD. He is obsessed with exactness and order which pushes him to spiral down. Hughes, as depicted in the movie in later stages, I clearly unable to control his speech; he constantly repeats himself and seems to be obsessed with useless things such as empty milk bottles filled with his urine. Furthermore, his compulsions and obsessions, particularly with clean and sterile hands forces him to refuse touching door knobs, as well as shaking other people’s hands. His obsession with symmetry and order become worse to the extent that he refuses to eat a plate of food just because a pea has been taken from it ruining the placement of the other food in the plate. At this point, it is clear that his obsessions too, met the specific criteria for OCD.
Therefore, since Hughes symptoms seem to meet both the general and specific characteristics of OCD, it is safe to psychiatrically diagnose him to be suffering from a classic case of specific OC, in this case, contamination-related OCD, characterized by extensive and rigid rituals and rules. The basic phobias, the irrationality and particularity of his symptoms, the urge to begin afresh when ritual is not perfectly observed, as well as escalation of symptoms in time of trauma or stress all accurately confirm this diagnosis. These, including his obsession with control and perfectionism are classic symptoms that show in other suffering from OCD.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . New York, NY: American Psychiatric Association.
Gluck, S. (2017, February 3). OCD Diagnosis: OCD Criteria and Characteristics in DSM 5. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from https://www.healthyplace.com/ocd-related-disorders/ocd/ocd-diagnosis-ocd-criteria-and-characteristics-in-dsm-5
Gray, S. W. (2016). Psychopathology: A Competency-based Assessment Model for Social Workers (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Scorsese, M. (2004). The Aviator . United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Waugh, M. H., Hopwood, C. J., Krueger, R. F., Morey, L. C., Pincus, A. L., & Wright, A. G. C. (2017). Psychological Assessment with the DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders: Tradition and Innovation. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice , 48 (2), 79–89. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pro0000071
