Marlin: Finding Nemo PTSD Case Study
Description:
In Finding Nemo, Marlin, a middle aged male Clownfish, and his wife, Coral, were expecting their first children in a few days. When a vicious barracuda attacked their home, Marlin tried to defend his family from the intruder but was knocked unconscious during the struggle. When he woke up, he was devastated to discover that his wife, Coral, and almost all of their 400 children had perished. Marlin found one remaining egg with a scratch in it and vowed to never let anything happen to it. Since the attack, Marlin is experiencing flashbacks, he has a fear of the open ocean, he believes his son, Nemo, is a weak swimmer, and he is overprotective of his only son.
History:
As a child, Marlin’s father…show more content… Nemo has an underdeveloped right fin as a birth defect. Nemo’s “lucky fin” is a symbol of the trauma from a year ago. Marlin’s negative associations with the fin generate self-blame for the death of his family. He is very pessimistic, always anticipating the worst outcome. When Marlin learns that Nemo is going to the dropoff on the first day of school, he panics because he thinks they will all surely die. He scolds his son because he will get stuck out there and his dad will have to come rescue him before another fish eats him. Marlin’s negative thoughts cause him to live in a state of continual fear of the world around…show more content… Exposure therapies for PTSD have been proven efficacious in many RCTs and thus have been recommended as a first line treatment for PTSD in several treatment guidelines (Foa, Gillihan, & Bryant 2013). Prolonged exposure therapy involves exposure to trauma-related cues through vivo and imaginal exposure. Vivo exposure consists of gradually and systematically having patients approach situations, places, and people that they have been avoiding (Foa et al., 2013). Marlin has already used this technique throughout the movie on his journey to find Nemo. He leaves his anemone to take Nemo to school, gradually tolerating the idea of being outside of his home, a place he previously avoided and finds that it a safe area. When Nemo is taken Marlin swims into open water, a place he previously avoided because of danger, in order to save his son. Marlin would benefit from continued prolonged exposure therapy with an emphasis on imaginal exposure. Imaginal exposure involves revisiting the memory in imagination and recounting the traumatic event in a way that promotes emotional engagement with the trauma memory, followed by processing the revisiting experience (Foa et al., 2013). This would allow Marlin to confront memories of the trauma in a constructive way and not have them haunt him as
