Her scratching and cutting is hardest to watch - blood oozes from her fingers as she rips off old scabs.ĭirector Darren Aronofsky has a "wild imagination, according to Jonathan Abramowitz, associate chair of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who specializes in obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders. Nina also makes frequent bulimic trips to the bathroom to throw-up. Viewers see hints of anorexia as she stares at a simple pink grapefruit for breakfast and turns away the fatty cake her mother buys to celebrate getting the coveted role.
Nina is meticulous about preparing her slippers, lining up the make-up in the dressing room and washing her hands at each turn. The film took liberties with a host of anxiety disorders: anorexia, bulimia, cutting and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) - most of which would not all appear together, say psychiatrists. Lamberti also suggests that the repeated vomiting and weight loss in the days leading up to her final performance may have caused an electrolyte disturbance that could have contributed to the psychosis. "Any one of these issues alone would be stressful, but experiencing all of them at once could be emotionally devastating, particularly for a young woman who is somewhat naïve and sheltered."Įcstasy, a powerful hallucinogen that Nina and Lily take in one libidinous scene, can also trigger a psychotic event. "Natalie Portman's character was involved in a highly stressful competition, she had conflicted relationships with her mother and with her understudy, and she was the object of sexual advances by her director," he said. Even the pink stuffed animals that adorn the bedroom she shares with her neurotic mother seem to come alive and mock her. In visual hallucinations, she sees a black-clad version of herself across the subway platform and again in the maze of hallways at Lincoln Center.
But she has competition in new sexually open dancer Lily, played by Mila Kunis.Īfter securing the role, Nina is asked to "lose herself" to play the black swan, and so she does. When the ballet's artistic director decides to replace the aging prima ballerina for the new season production of "Swan Lake," Nina is his first choice. They live in a tiny New York City apartment, cluttered with her mother's narcissistic paintings. Nina, who constantly strives for perfection, lives with her controlling mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, who gave up dance to have her daughter. "What was a hallucination and what was real? When people are psychotic, it's difficult, even as a therapist, to know what's real and what's not." "It was intense and disturbing and fascinating and mysterious," said Nadine Kaslow, vice-chair of the department of psychiatry at Emory University and psychologist to the Atlanta Ballet.
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