Awakenings

Awakenings (Awakenings, in English) is an American film directed by Penny Marshall and released in 1990.

Based on the autobiography of neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings tells the true story of the discovery, in 1969, of the temporary beneficial effects of L-dopa and its application to catatonic patients who survived the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica of 1917-1928. In the film, Oliver Sacks is played by actor Robin Williams under the name Malcolm Sayer.

Plot

The film is about the story of Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), a doctor who has been experimenting with worms throughout his career. He gets a job at a New York City hospital, where he begins treating patients in a catatonic state.

One day he notices that one of his patients instinctively catches her glasses before they fall to the floor. At that time, she begins to investigate the disease and formulate hypotheses about its possible causes, but mainly about its treatment.

At this point he is presented with a new problem: the skepticism of his colleagues and the relatives of his patients regarding his theory that these patients have a chance of living again and that their disease would consist of aggravated Parkinson's disease.

Among his various investigations, he becomes familiar with a new drug, L-dopa, which is used for the treatment of Parkinson's, and decides to try it on one of his patients, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro).

After many failed attempts, one night Leonard wakes up. From then on, the doctor receives the acceptance of colleagues and relatives of those affected, and also his financial help, thanks to which he can start treating all his patients with this drug.

Trouble flares up again when Leonard, the first patient treated with L-dopa, re-develops the symptoms of the disease, deeply affecting the doctor, his patients and their families.

Doctor-patient relationship in the film

The film talks about consideration and mutual respect between the neurologist and the patient. The character of Robin Williams is a doctor who has dedicated himself to research during his career, a choice that has a lot to do with the difficulty he presents in relating not only to patients but also to colleagues, both professionally and personally.

When he arrives at the institution, he wants a position in his area of expertise, but it is not possible, and because his economic situation forces him to accept the offer to work with patients suffering from encephalitis lethargica, a disease that is characterized by increasing languor, apathy, and drowsiness, leading eventually to lethargy.

Throughout the film, he shows an obvious concern for the welfare and well-being of his patients. At the same time that we observe that he inquires about the disease and the similarities that the patients have with each other in order to find a cure that helps them get out of the state in which they find themselves.

In any case, this apparent concern of Dr. Sayer for the recovery of those affected may be due to a desire for personal satisfaction, the need to reach a new goal that will mark a milestone in his career.

Oliver Sacks, writer of the book on which the film was based.

For example, your "interest" in meeting Leonard's mother arises because her superiors will only allow the use of L-DOPA in the treatment if she can get the approval of at least one relative. Another clear example is the irresponsibility with which he acts when he medicates Leonard, with the aim of reversing his condition, without worrying about the side effects that the drug, which was also experimental, could have on him.

Equally, the fact that the patients he treats are in a state of marked psychomotor disturbance and a notable decrease in reactivity to the environment and spontaneous reactivity should not be ignored, which prevents him from maintaining an interpersonal relationship with the same and, much less, create an affective bond.

All this begins to change after Leonard's improvement, and the others affected.

You begin to see a closer relationship between them; On the one hand, patients feel a deep gratitude and, what is more important, a great trust in the doctor. The latter is an essential point, which must be treated with great caution in any doctor-patient relationship, since the former must be aware that this type of feeling is very common and not abuse it, but also has to prevent them from exercising a pressure on him, based on the fear of disappointing this trust that has been placed in him, and that this could affect his professional performance.

It is this response from patients that generates the change in Dr. Sayer; his professional ambitions are set aside, the well-being of his patients occupying a leading role. This is expressed, fundamentally, by providing them with great support, not only from a purely medical point of view, but also from a human one.

Another important point to highlight is that the typical asymmetry in these types of relationships is diminished since the doctor "heals", even for a while, the physical conditions of his patients, but these, In turn, they heal their doctor's psychological conditions, even if they are not aware of it, by helping him maintain interpersonal relationships where deep feelings are at stake, a point at which, as we mentioned earlier, he presented serious difficulties.

This change was confirmed towards the end of the film, when in the face of Leonard's relapse, Dr. Sayer acts as all the experts on this subject recommend, communicating to the patient about his condition, even when it is very serious, in the manner traumatic as possible for this, and also provide the best treatment within the possibilities.

In any case, Dr. Sayer does not take the relapse of his patients as a blow to his own ego, which would affect them to a greater or lesser extent. This is of great importance since the attitude of every doctor in the face of this type of eventuality must be to admit their own shortcomings and understand the limitations of science.

The end of the film is the scene in which Dr. Sayer watches the recordings of his patient Leonard when he is in a catatonic state, his progress, improvement and how he falls to the same state from which he woke up, then the nurse Eleonor enters and He explains that he shouldn't blame himself and that life always gives us and takes everything from us, reflecting on what happened.

As an epilogue is "The reality of miracles" or that the patients could not bear the passing of the years of their lives; the spirit is more powerful than any drug and with work, play, friendship, family, they can recover; that is what matters, what we have forgotten are the simple things.

Dr. Sayer and his team continued to search for ways to help patients with post-encephalic problems but could not experience the same thing as in the summer of 1969 again. As recounted in the film Awakenings, they continued working in the Bronx, in the psychiatric hospital, helping and seeking to "wake up" more sick people not with drugs, but with effort and sacrifice.

Awards

Based on the book of the same name by Oliver Sacks, it had three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Lead Actor (Robert De Niro), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Oscars 1990