| Course | D571 Psychopathology |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 3 |
| Paper type | Critical media analysis |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | BS Psychology |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D571 Task 3
Fear of Being Seen, Fear of Food, Fear of Being Left: A Critical Analysis of Anxiety, Eating and Personality Disorder Depictions in Dear Evan Hansen, To the Bone and Girl, Interrupted
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D571: Psychopathology, Task 3
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Fear of Being Seen, Fear of Food, Fear of Being Left: A Critical Analysis of Anxiety, Eating and Personality Disorder Depictions in Dear Evan Hansen, To the Bone and Girl, Interrupted
Introduction
Screen portrayals shape how audiences understand disorders they may never have seen in real life, and research suggests those portrayals affect both public attitudes and whether people seek help (Pirkis et al., 2006). This paper critically analyzes three fictional characters: Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen, representing an anxiety disorder; Ellen in To the Bone, representing a feeding and eating disorder; and Susanna Kaysen in Girl, Interrupted, representing a personality disorder. For each, it lists the behaviors on screen, sets them beside diagnostic criteria (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022), and evaluates the portrayal's accuracy, its biases and its likely effect on viewers. The characters are analyzed as depicted, not as clinical diagnoses of real people.
Anxiety Disorder: Social Anxiety Disorder in Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen (Chbosky, 2021) follows a high school senior whose therapist has him write letters to himself. After a classmate's death, one of those letters is mistaken for the classmate's note, and Evan is drawn into a lie that makes him briefly popular.
Symptoms shown. Evan is intensely afraid of social situations in which he might be judged, from ordering food to speaking with classmates. He rehearses conversations, stumbles over words, sweats and avoids eye contact, and he anticipates humiliation before any interaction. He avoids situations when he can and endures them with visible distress when he cannot. The film refers to his therapy and medication and shows his mother worried about his isolation.
Comparison with criteria. Social anxiety disorder involves marked fear or anxiety about social situations in which a person may be scrutinized, fear of acting in a way that will be negatively evaluated, situations that almost always provoke fear and are avoided or endured with intense distress, fear out of proportion to the actual threat, a duration of six months or more and significant impairment (APA, 2022). Evan's portrayal fits each of these closely.
Critical analysis. The film's depiction of the physical and anticipatory experience of social anxiety is detailed and sympathetic, and it treats therapy and medication as ordinary. Its central plot is more troubling. Evan's anxiety is presented alongside a lie that brings him acceptance, and his social confidence grows largely because he deceives a grieving family. Viewers could come away with the impression that anxiety is overcome through popularity rather than treatment. The film also involves suicide, and mental health organizations generally advise that such stories include information about getting help, which the film does not emphasize.
Feeding and Eating Disorder: Anorexia Nervosa in To the Bone
To the Bone (Noxon, 2017) follows Ellen, a 20-year-old artist with anorexia nervosa, who enters an unconventional group home after several failed treatment programs.
Symptoms shown. Ellen severely restricts her food intake and is visibly underweight. She knows the calorie count of every item on her plate, exercises compulsively in private, and denies that her weight is dangerous even after fainting. Her fear of weight gain is shown through her refusal to eat anything beyond minimal amounts and her distress at the thought of gaining. The film shows her family's conflict and her stepmother's and mother's different ideas about treatment.
Comparison with criteria. Anorexia nervosa involves restriction of energy intake leading to significantly low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, and disturbance in the way one's weight or shape is experienced or a persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the low weight (APA, 2022). Ellen's portrayal meets all three, including the lack of recognition of danger.
Critical analysis. The film treats anorexia as a serious, potentially fatal illness and shows how it affects a family, which is accurate and important. It also has limits that matter for an eating disorder specifically. Scenes that display calorie counting and a visibly emaciated body could be harmful to viewers who are vulnerable to eating disorders, and the film was released with content warnings for that reason. The portrayal also reinforces a narrow image of who develops anorexia, a thin young white woman, although eating disorders occur across genders, body sizes, ages and ethnic groups. Viewers who do not fit that image may be less likely to recognize their own symptoms.
Personality Disorder: Borderline Personality Disorder in Girl, Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted (Mangold, 1999), adapted from Susanna Kaysen's memoir, follows an 18-year-old admitted to a psychiatric hospital in 1967 after an overdose of aspirin and alcohol. She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and spends about eighteen months on a ward with other young women.
Symptoms shown. Susanna shows an unstable sense of who she is and what she wants, impulsive behavior including casual sexual relationships, intense and shifting emotions, feelings of emptiness and a pattern of unstable relationships, including her intense bond with a charismatic fellow patient. The overdose that leads to her admission is presented as ambiguous in intent.
Comparison with criteria. Borderline personality disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability in relationships, self-image and emotion, with marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and shown by five or more of nine criteria, including efforts to avoid abandonment, identity disturbance, impulsivity in at least two areas, recurrent self-harm or suicidal behavior, emotional instability, chronic emptiness, intense anger and stress-related paranoia or dissociation (APA, 2022). The character shows identity disturbance, impulsivity, emotional instability, emptiness and self-harm, meeting the threshold of five.
Critical analysis. The film raises a valuable question about the diagnosis itself; Susanna openly wonders whether her behavior is a disorder or simply an unhappy young woman's response to her era's expectations of women. That skepticism is historically grounded but could also reinforce stigma. Research has described how borderline personality disorder carries particular stigma among clinicians and the public, including beliefs that people with it are manipulative or untreatable, which can affect the care they receive (Aviram et al., 2006). The film does little to show that effective treatments now exist. Its most dramatic character, a patient portrayed as dangerous and manipulative, may leave viewers with a picture of personality disorders centered on threat rather than suffering.
Conclusion
All three films portray symptoms that align closely with current diagnostic criteria, and each makes a sincere effort to show inner experience. Each also carries a bias shaped by its story: recovery through acceptance rather than treatment, a narrow image of who has an eating disorder, and a view of personality disorders colored by danger and doubt. A critical viewer can appreciate the portrayals while recognizing what they leave out.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
Aviram, R. B., Brodsky, B. S., & Stanley, B. (2006). Borderline personality disorder, stigma, and treatment implications. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 14(5), 249-256. https://doi.org/10.1080/10673220600975121
Chbosky, S. (Director). (2021). Dear Evan Hansen [Film]. Universal Pictures.
Mangold, J. (Director). (1999). Girl, interrupted [Film]. Columbia Pictures.
Noxon, M. (Director). (2017). To the bone [Film]. Netflix.
Pirkis, J., Blood, R. W., Francis, C., & McCallum, K. (2006). On-screen portrayals of mental illness: Extent, nature, and impacts. Journal of Health Communication, 11(5), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730600755889
What the D571 Task 3 instructions ask
The third D571 task asks you to critically analyze depictions of anxiety disorders, feeding and eating disorders, and personality disorders. In most versions you pick one fictional character per category, give the title it comes from, lay out the symptoms on screen, compare them with diagnostic criteria and evaluate the portrayal. Critical is the key word here. Beyond accuracy, the evaluator wants you to consider bias, stereotypes, possible harm to viewers and what the story implies about the disorder and its treatment. Some versions add the biopsychosocial model. The analysis concerns the portrayal, so write about the character as shown rather than guessing at diagnoses of real people.
How this D571 Task 3 example is built
The sample uses a parallel structure for the three characters, each with symptoms, criteria and a critical analysis subsection, which makes comparison straightforward. The anxiety section shows how Evan's rehearsed conversations and avoidance match each criterion, then separates that accuracy from the message of the plot. The eating disorder section confirms all three criteria for anorexia, then raises two concerns specific to the category: potentially harmful content and a narrow image of who is affected. The personality disorder section counts five criteria against the threshold and uses research on stigma to evaluate the film's doubts about the diagnosis. A conclusion names the bias in each portrayal.
Where the D571 Task 3 rubric puts the marks
In D571 Task 3 each aspect receives its own rating of competent, approaching competence or not evident, usually with an aspect for each of the three disorder categories. Evaluators check that symptoms are identified and matched accurately to criteria, then look for genuine critical analysis: bias, stereotyping, harm and the portrayal's implications. The critical element is what separates this task from the second one, so papers that only confirm accuracy tend to fall short. Where required, the biopsychosocial model must be applied. APA citations for films, the diagnostic manual and supporting research, along with professional writing, complete the scoring. Evidence from specific scenes carries more weight than general impressions of a film.
D571 Task 3 help: what sends it back
Critical analysis is where most D571 Task 3 papers struggle. Saying a portrayal is accurate or inaccurate is only the start; ask what a viewer would learn about the disorder, who is left out and whether the story could cause harm. A second common problem involves categories. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is no longer grouped with anxiety disorders in the current manual, so choose a character with an anxiety disorder such as social anxiety or panic disorder for that slot. Third, personality disorder sections often skip the threshold count. State how many criteria the character shows. Finally, handle eating disorder content carefully and avoid repeating numbers such as calorie counts or weights, since those details can be harmful to readers who are vulnerable and add nothing to the analysis.
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D571 Task 3 questions, answered
What counts as an anxiety disorder for D571 Task 3?
Disorders in the current manual's anxiety chapter, such as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder and specific phobias. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is now in a separate chapter.
How many criteria are needed for borderline personality disorder?
Five of nine listed criteria, reflecting a pervasive pattern that begins by early adulthood. The sample counts the criteria shown by the character against that threshold.
What does critical analysis mean in D571 Task 3?
It means going beyond accuracy to evaluate bias, stereotypes, potential harm to viewers and what the story implies about the disorder, its causes and its treatment.
Can I use a TV series for D571 Task 3?
Usually yes, as long as the character's condition is clearly portrayed. Cite the series in APA style and describe specific episodes or scenes as evidence.
Where can I find a free D571 Task 3 sample paper?
The complete critical analysis is on this page with a note beside each section. For your own choice of characters, share your D571 task and the desk drafts a first tailored version at no cost.