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During their honeymoon Francisco takes Gloria to see some
property, once owned by his family, that he believes should still
rightfully belong to him. We learn that Francisco is fighting a
lawsuit to regain the property, but is struggling to find a lawyer
willing to take on his case and defend his view that he is being
wronged. This is the first sight that we are given of his paranoia.
At this early stage in their marriage, Gloria remains calm and
non-judgmental, even when she begins to experience Francisco's
jealousy on the honeymoon when she meets an old male friend. From
this point on, Francisco’s suspicions that Gloria is behaving in an
over familiar manner with other men grow and he begins to accuse
her in a critical and unreasonable way. She feels misunderstood by
others, who continue to view Francisco as an upstanding member of
the community and becomes increasingly isolated. After he finds out
that she has spoken with the priest about the matter, Francisco is
angry and decides to frighten her in to submission by firing a gun
with blank bullets at her.
`After further escalating threats and then actual aggression,
Gloria finally runs away. It is at this point that she encounters
Raúl driving through the city. He suggests that she must leave
Francisco, but she returns once again to her marital home, not
realising that Francisco has seen Raúl bring her home. That night,
Francisco enters her room as she sleeps, carrying rope and sewing
implements, possibly to bind her and stitch her up so that no one
can enter her, or perhaps to murder her. Whatever his intention,
she wakes in time to scream and escape from the house. Francisco
sets off in pursuit with a gun, mistaking other people for Raúl and
Gloria, but is unable to find her. When he reaches the church where
his friend the priest is delivering a service, he experiences some
frightening paranoid visual hallucinations that suggest the whole
congregation is laughing at him. Suffering from an acute paranoid
psychotic episode, he tries to attack the priest and is restrained
by the crowd. Some period of time later, we see Gloria, Raúl and
their young son visiting a monastery, where Francisco now lives in
the care of monks.
Relevance to the field of Mental Health
This film provides a brilliant opportunity to consider the topic
of morbid jealousy, a symptom rather than a diagnosis, related to a
number of underlying mental disorders and often co-existing with
substance abuse. Morbid jealousy refers to the abnormal
preoccupation that a partner is being sexually unfaithful. The
strength of this belief may take the form of an obsessional
rumination, an overvalued idea or a delusion. This may arise de
novo as a delusional disorder or it may be associated with an
underlying mental disorder such as schizophrenia, depression, and
substance misuse or arise in the context of a personality disorder.
The temporal relationship between the symptoms of morbid jealousy
and any other illness are crucial in determining the cause and
thereby informing the treatment.
As in the case of Francisco and Gloria, the symptom
of morbid jealousy usually carries significant risk of violence to
the partner suspected of infidelity or to the third person accused
of involvement with them, but there is also a risk of suicide. It
is for this reason that forensic psychiatrists are often involved
in the management of such patients.
An excellent review article entitled Aspects of morbid
jealousy, by forensic psychiatrists Michael Kingham and Harvey
Gordon, is available in full in the journal Advances in Psychiatric
Treatments (Advances
in Psychiatric Treatment (2004)10: 207-215). A
reading of this alongside a viewing of El would provide a
very good foundation for learning about this very important
symptom.
Of additional value to students learning about mental health is
the scene near the end of the film when Francisco experiences
terrifying paranoid visual hallucinations in the church. Buñuel
manages to recreate the experience for viewers of the fear and
confusion that those suffering from such paranoid psychotic
symptoms might feel, by using point of view camera shots.
Although this film is more difficult to obtain than my usual
recommendations, I highly recommend a viewing for anyone interested
in working in the field of forensic psychiatry.
• More information about El can be found at
IMDB.
• Unfortunately, the DVD is more expensive to buy. Several
copies are currently available on
amazon.co.uk marketplace.
• Minds on Film is written by Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr
Joyce Almeida.
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