Avoidant Personality Research Center

This is an older movie but really illustrates well how the one with Avoidant Personality thinks and why they can't function.

This is one of those sci fi movies that will soon become science fact. In the movie, there is a computer called HAL. Hal is an artificially intelligent computer that has achieved what seems like consciousness.

Hal has been programmed to interact with the crew and keep them company as well and control all functions of the ship on its missions. In addition, HAL has been programmed with a hard coded function to never lie. It must always deliver factual information to the crew and never hide anything.

One day a mission comes up that is very hush hush. The mission is so secret that the people that have created the mission don’t even want the crew to know. They program HAL with a special instruction to not tell the crew the true nature of the mission. In other words, HAL is told he has to lie.

HALs original hard coded programming is to never lie, or keep the truth from anyone. These 2 sets of instructions are completely opposed to each other. It’s impossible to tell the truth and lie at the same time.

The result is this is that HAL develops a Psychosis. A Psychosis means that HAL loses touch with reality and basically can’t tell what is real and what is not. This is a lot like what the one that suffers from Avoidant Personality (Avp) goes through. One of the symptoms of AVp is that they hate people and fear them.

Human nature (The hard coding) is to love people and want to be around them. This means that the one with Avp both loves and hates people at the very same time. It's impossible to both love and hate people and both want people around, but due to fear, run from them.

The result is that the one with Avp develops a Psychosis and loses touch with reality.

We strongly recommend that anyone that has, or thinks they have Avp, as well as loved ones to watch this movie to get a better upstanding of Avp.

A Beautiful Mind is a biographical film about the American genius John Forbes Nash, who was a brilliant mathematician and cryptographer. The movie depicts his struggles with mental illness. 

"Amélie" is a fanciful comedy about a young woman who discretely orchestrates the lives of the people around her, creating a world exclusively of her own making. Shot in over 80 Parisian locations, acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Delicatessen"; "The City of Lost Children") invokes his incomparable visionary style to capture the exquisite charm and mystery of modern-day Paris through the eyes of a beautiful ingenue.

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.

As Good As It Gets features Jack Nicholson in a performance about a man named Melvin who is obsessive-compulsive (OCD).

This movie is a very good portrayal of Melvin’s attempt to fit into normal society. He fails at this miserably, until he finds a woman who captivates him. In Melvin’s words:

“You make me want to be a better man.”

A psychiatrist makes rounds in ERs, jails, and homeless camps to tell the intimate stories behind one of the greatest social crises of our time. A personal and intense journey into the world of the seriously mentally ill.

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Chicago is not about a mental disorder, but the movie features a character, Mr. Cellophane, who fits the description of Avoidant Personality (AVPD). The clip above features Mr. Cellophane, the husband of Roxie Hart, who feels like he is invisible because no one even notices him.

This scene is helpful for people to get inside the mind of someone that has Avoidance, as well as other mental conditions.

Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

Jed, an airline pilot, is resting in a hotel when he notices Nell, a young woman babysitting for a wealthy couple. As Jed gets to know Nell better he realizes that the woman is not as stable as perhaps she should be.

It's entirely up to you what, if any, connection you draw between this movie and mental illness. Fallen is a movie with the great actor Denzel Washington. The movie is about a demon named Azazel. Azazel has been alive for thousands of years. These demons used to be angels that were in league with Satan and attempted to overthrow God.

God punished them by casting them out of heaven and depriving them of form. The only way they can exist is to inhabit the bodies of people. A demon takes over a person's body and reapes havoc kiling as many people as it can and then taking the life of that person.

Once the person is dead, the demon simply moves on to another and its “wash, rinse, repeat” until the entire human race is decimated.

In the movie, many people that would not ordinarily do or say anything even close to bad, suddenly become sadistic murders when taken over by Azazel. This devastation on the human race is the demon's vengeance for being cast out of heaven.

There are those that believe that Mental Health is the result of demon possession. The reason then why a person that is mentally ill cannot remember what they are accused of doing is because the demon has left them.

Another theory is that mental illness is an “after effect” of demon possession that was passed down from previous generations. Whether you ascribe to any of these theories, Fallen is a very good movie that will leave you wondering if there are puppet masters behind the scenes pulling the strings and running the show.

Girl, Interrupted is an excellent movie about a girl that spends 18 months in a mental institution. She has issues dealing with reality.

God Knows Where I Am is a documentary about a woman that moved into an empty house, and how she deals with various struggles related to her mental illness. She was afraid of going outside and of people.

The main character went to a mental hospital, but the doctors botched her diagnosis and did not treat her because she refused the treatment. In her struggles, she became homeless and was abandoned by society.

This film starts off slowly, but if you watch it to the end, you will be rewarded

House is a TV series, not a movie. The main character, Dr. House, has some very intense issues that he deals with over the course of the series.

Many of the episodes deal with these issues, but one of the most telling is featured in the two-part opener of Season 6, called “Broken.”

It’s Kind Of A Funny Story is a movie is about a young person that struggles with life. He voluntarily checks himself into a mental hospital where he finds help through a friend and a girl that is also seeking treatment there.

K-Pax is, in our opinion, one of Kevin Spacey’s best works. Kevin plays a man that went through a horrible trauma. The twist is that he thinks he is an alien.

One of the reasons they suspect he might be an alien is because he knows things that no one on earth knows. The audience goes through the entire movie never knowing if he is really an alien or if he has a mental disorder.

Leaving Las Vegas is a very dark movie, but one that might be worth watching. It is about a man that has decided to drink himself to death.

Matchstick Men depicts a con artist who is also an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe. He meets what he thinks is his daughter and finds the strength to overcome his disorder, eventually getting married and leading a normal life.

While serving time for insanity at a state mental hospital, implacable rabble-rouser, Randle Patrick McMurphy, inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule of head nurse, Mildred Ratched.

One Hour Photo is one of Robin William’s best performances, although it is not a comedy. He portrays middle-aged Sy Parrish, who works as a technician at a one-hour photo lab located in a suburban mall. Sy is a lonely man, never having had any friends. He knows a lot about his customers through the photographs that he develops.

He takes a special interest in the Yorkin family – specifically Nina Yorkin and her adolescent son Jake Yorkin. These are the two members of the family who frequently drop off and pick up the family’s film for photofinishing. Sy becomes obsessed with this family. Nina’s husband, Will Yorkin, is incidental to his obsession since Sy has only seen him in photographs.

Sy’s obsession includes fantasizing about being their favorite “Uncle Sy.” In his obsession, he began making extra sets of photo prints to keep for himself since Jake was a newborn. After an incident at work, and after Sy finds out more about the family through a set of photographs, he decides to right the injustices he sees in the only way he knows how. His actions demonstrate his true mental state

Pi is a film about a paranoid mathematician who searches for a key number that will unlock universal patterns found in nature.

Rain Man is an iconic film about a ‘Normal’ man, Raymond, who is reunited with his brother, an autistic savant, after decades of estrangement.

The plot depicts Raymond’s difficulty in dealing with his brother’s condition, and his path from selfishness/frustration to truly caring for his brother.

Still Alice is a very good movie about a woman that is dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s.

The Fisher King is an excellent movie about a guy that went through a very traumatic event. He saw his wife get murdered. His mind could not handle it, so he withdrew into homelessness and into a fantasy world where he felt compelled to find the cup of Jesus Christ, otherwise known as the Holy Chalice or Holy Grail.

The story takes on some very interesting twists. It also gives some great insights into homelessness.

The Madness of King George tells the story of aging King George III of England as he exhibits signs of ‘madness,’ a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confusion and near-violent outbursts of temper, his hapless doctors attempt the ineffectual cures of the day.

When The Sixth Sense first came out, it was groundbreaking. It is about a therapist that takes on a child that is having issues dealing with life.

As the plot unfolds, the audience learns some very interesting things about the therapist and the boy.

The boy utters that iconic line: “I see dead people.”

Vertigo is an old Hitchcock movie, but it is still one of the best films about personal demons.

The film portrays a former police detective who juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with a hauntingly beautiful woman.

What About Bob? portrays a man named who is afraid of leaving his apartment, and has several other very interesting issues. This comedy is a very good portrayal of his mental condition. 

As an added twist, the therapist in the movie seems to have some mental health issues of his own to deal with.

The therapist provides a helpful insight to treating mental illness in the title of his book, Baby Steps.