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Melissa Chan
Professor Josef Mogharreban
Honors 392A
October 24, 2016

Midterm Reflection: The Best Years of Our Lives

The perspectives and attitudes towards Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

reflected in The Best Years of Our Lives provide insight into our countrys

understanding of invisible mental disabilities on the 1940s post-war home front.

Through the portrayal of Air Force veteran Fred Derry, the film characterizes a

dismissive attitude towards PTSD while facilitating stigmas of danger, personal fault,

and shame. Although our understanding of PTSD and veterans today has progressed

significantly since then, some of these stereotypes unfortunately still persist in

popular culture, and extend to affect perceptions of other mental disabilities as well.

The film represents Fred as a two-sided character. During the day and when

interacting with others, we see a charismatic soldier who is all too ready to have a

good time. But then at night and while alone, the development of his PTSD is

revealed through short clips of nightmares and internal brooding. This separation of

the normal versus abnormal Fred facilitates the idea that the real and lovable

him is separate from his PTSD, leading the audience to fear this invisible disability

as an abstract unknown.

Building off of this fear, the film also perpetuates the perspective that PTSD

makes a person scary and dangerous. In the very first nightmare scene at the

Stephensons house, Peggy is awoken by strange cries coming from Fred behind a

closed door (TBYOOL). The dim lighting and eerie music accompanying her

investigation create a tense atmosphere, and feelings of insecurity and danger are

evoked when Fred suddenly sits up in bed, unconscious, but still wide-eyed and
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mumbling as the camera zooms in on his face (TBYOOL). Moreover, the next

morning Peggy avoids bringing up the incident until Fred eventually apologizes for it

(TBYOOL). This exchange implies that PTSD is something that is shameful and

should not be talked about.

Subsequent scenes addressing his nightmares also dismiss PTSD as an

illegitimate disability. In one scene, Freds wife, Marie, blatantly confronts him about

why he cant just snap out of it and get a good job (TBYOOL). This mindset relays

the idea that reintegration into society means completely letting go of the military

experiences that have changed him. Throwing away all of this baggage and just

moving on is seen as a simple task, and therefore Freds inability to do this is

blamed as a fault in personal character. The reduction and simplification of Freds

readjustment difficulties are further emphasized by the plot development around his

story. The article, Heroes and Misfits reveals that the film script deliberately

muted the PTSD symptoms described in the original book that it was based on

(Gerber 556). Correspondingly, only hints of Freds PTSD are sprinkled throughout in

short clips, but for the majority of the film, his invisible disability is sidelined in favor

of that charismatic daytime personality and his romantic dramas.

Today, PTSD among our veterans is much more mainstreamed in society. For

the most part, we understand that it is not a fabrication borne from personal

weakness, but really a tangible medical diagnosis that can respond to treatment

and rehabilitation. However, though our medical understanding of PTSD has

progressed since the 1940s, some of the social stereotypes reflected in The Best

Years of Our Lives are still salient today, and have also helped shape our attitudes

towards people with other mental disabilities.

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For example, the perception that people with mental disabilities are scary or

dangerous is still very relevant, as we discussed in our Stereotypes and Importance

of Language lecture during the second week of classes (Wheeler). On the news,

mental health is always implicated after a campus shooting or terrorist attack. It is

used as a scape goat to explain dangerous and erratic behaviors so that society can

avoid the fact that a normal person could be capable of such things. On a more

personal front for me, these stigmas are also evident in everyday patient protocol at

the ER department of a hospital where I volunteer. Admitted patients who are

identified as having mental health concerns are given hospital gowns that are a

distinctly different color than those given to other patients. This is meant to signal

to the hospital staff that these patients might require more sensitive handling, but

ultimately serves as a literal glaring colored flag that they are different and should

be treated with caution. Speaking from my own observations, it seems that staff do

approach these patients with more caution and also more readily call the onsite

police unit to handle them, thereby reinforcing the idea that they are a threat and

comparatively unwelcome.

Finally, the attitude that mental disabilities are shameful and should not be

talked about is also still present and particularly evident in military culture, as we

discussed in our Military Culture lecture during the fourth week of classes (N.

Mogharreban). The immense pressure to soldier up and appear stoic prevent

veterans from seeking mental health care (N. Mogharreban). This pressure is driven

by our cultural assumption that a person with a mental disability is unable to make

good judgments and be productive, as exemplified by the films portrayal of Freds

inability to find a good job, or even hold down the one he dislikes at the drugstore.
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Ultimately, I believe the mixed progress our society has made in

understanding PTSD and mental disability can be attributed to the uneven

development of the medical and social models of disability. As discussed in our

Developing Skills in Theory and Research lecture during the second week of

classes, our social understanding of the interaction between people living with

mental disabilities and society lags far behind our understanding of the medical

facts behind the conditions (J. Mogharreban). This continues to influence our

insistence that the solution to these blank lie in individuals overcoming their

disabilities and conforming to the dominant idea of normalcy, rather than critically

reflecting on the disability experience as a social construct. Heroes and Misfits

speaks directly to this by pointing out how Freds happy Hollywood ending only

reinforces this cultural aspiration (Gerber 555). This effectively prioritizes

placating a society scrambling to deal with demobilized veterans over addressing

the social reintegration struggles of the disabled veterans themselves.

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WORKS CITED

Gerber, David A. Heroes and Misfits: The Troubled Social Reintegration of Disabled

Veterans in The Best Years of Our Lives. American Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 4.

pp. 545-574. Dec., 1994.

Mogharreban, Josef. Developing Skills in Theory and Research. Oct. 5, 2016.

Mogharreban, Nicole. Military Culture. Oct. 17, 2016.

The Best Years of Our Lives (TBYOOL). Directed by William Wyler, Samuel Goldwyn

Company, 1946.

Wheeler, Kayla. Stereotypes and the Importance of Language. Oct. 3, 2016.