Interesting thread. I asked myself this question too. The sound was quite low on my TV and I indeed missed the father talking about his bipolarity at the begining. However Bipolarity seems to be one of this new disease used to describe a cycle of ups and down in depression. Before, it was called Major depressive episodes, now it's called Bipolarity.
A quick search on wiki gave me this:
"There are several other mental disorders which may involve similar symptoms to bipolar disorder. These include schizophrenia,[55] schizoaffective disorder, drug intoxication, brief drug-induced psychosis, schizophreniform disorder and borderline personality disorder".
What I mean here is that I'm not sure that the Bipolarity itself is proven and or relevant. His father has a funny reaction when Leonard lies about not showing up to the lunch with the Cohen: He says that there was a Terrorist Bomb Scare and his dad takes the terrorist threat very seriously. I think that as an immigrant, some words have a greater impact on him;, hence the vague allusion to the bipolarity.
This being said, Leo tries to commit suicide at the begining of the film. And that is important, more than the exact diagnose of his "disease".
Anyway, I love this film with an intense passion. Can't wait to watch it again and again and again...
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sfviewer123
13 years ago
Bipolar was *not* previously called Major Depression, it was called Manic Depression (Major Depressive Disorder still exists as a diagnosis).
In any case I would not place too much importance in Hollywood's depiction of psychiatric issues, they tend to be highly sensationalized and often factually wrong (like almost every subject). (Bipolar is also the new adult diagnosis of fashion for the past 10-15 years, like ADD for kids, so it's not surprising that a movie director just "threw it in there". Incidentally there was *nothing* in the movie about him really acting overtly manic, which would also support the diagnosis of Major Depression).
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