Imagine for a minute that some mysterious virus infected my computer and, instead of letting me type coherently, all of a sudden, on its own, it started endlessly repeating itself… endlessly repeating itself… endlessly repeating itself… endlessly repeating itself… endlessly repeating itself…

Suffering from an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is not very different. Brain circuitry gets out of ‘sync’ and forces its bearer to endlessly repeat himself… whatever it is he might be doing at the moment.

The above is a poor example of the kind of trauma and frustration that people who suffer from OCD face in a regular basis. Add to this: bouts of irrational fear, ‘sticky gear shift’ brain activity where, as the name suggests, the brain’s neurons endlessly fire in an already visited path and can’t deviate from it.

It is an understatement to say that those who suffer OCD, often get the sensation of being trapped… with no way out.

NPI is the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute based at UCLA and it is disorders such as Obsessive Compulsiveness that they specialize in treating and researching. With that purpose, they invited actor Leonardo Di Caprio, Director Martin Scorsese and Howard Hughes legal widow and actress, Terry Moore for a private screening of Scorsese’s latest film, “The Aviator”, starring Di Caprio in the role of Howard Hughes.

Nowadays, Howard Hughes OCD is well documented and no longer just the source of speculation in books and 'un-authorized' biographies. Biopics such as Scorsese’s have to deal with it to fulfill the ‘credibility’ gap faced by serious filmmakers while recreating in the big screen, historically well-documented characters.

For that reason, both Di Caprio and Scorsese decided to bring an OCD expert to act as a ‘consultant’ for the film and the film’s star. Both Di Caprio and Scorsese were ‘obsessed’ with a realistic portrayal of the often misunderstood billionaire and aviator and chose to obtain advice from one of the leading experts in this particular field of brain research.

The Science behind the Movie

Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz not only acted as Di Caprio’s expert advisor for the film but was also on hand to answer questions next to the movie star and the famous director the night of the Aviator’s screening.

First, Dr. Schwartz explained to the audience the difficulty of training Di Caprio so he could realistically portray Hughes, or any person with OCD for that matter. To do this, Dr. Schwartz worked closely with the actor so he could become familiar with common fears and 'repetitive behaviours' particular to those suffering from OCD. And how, through 'mindful awareness', get in and out of them.

This implied that the actor had to ‘assimilate’ this information and process it before he could act it out in front of the camera. And while in the OCD affected brain, there might be a 'switch' that triggers the repetitive behaviour, in the actor's psyche, there isn't, this odd conduct can't be automatically summoned. So, in some occasions, it meant that the whole filming crew had to wait for Di Caprio to ‘get into the character’ before the actual shooting could begin.

The actor refers to one concrete example in which the script was nothing but two full pages of one sentence being repeated over and over: “Any actor will tell you that when you encounter something like this in a script, it must be other than a typo. As an actor, I needed to know what type of motivation could realistically lead me to portray Hughes in this manner, when he was stuck and couldn’t get out of that mode… In this sense, Dr. Schwartz advice was invaluable to me because it helped me understand Hughes and people suffering like him…”

To be exact, the actor’s portrayal of Hughes is nothing short of mesmerizing, including a few difficult scenes where the billionaire aviator gets stuck in endless speech repetitions or irrational situations based on his fears -of germs, of conspiracies, of food not presented 'at the right angle'. To keep up his reputation as a risk-taker with difficult roles, Di Caprio comes through once again as a truly talented actor whose record to match remains only his own. Although the movie at large falters in some sections, the overall production and the direction of Martin Scorsese make the film nonetheless remarkable and probably an Oscar contender.

An ambitious film like The Aviator can't be reviewed in a paragraph however and it's only mentioned here because of its synergy with the cause of OCD and NPI.

Today, according to Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, thanks to advances in both medicine and psychiatric science, people suffering with conditions such as the late Howard Hughes can find humane care and attention which wasn’t available in Hughes’ days.

“It is a shame… I would’ve loved to have treated Mr. Hughes. In this age of ‘mindful awareness’ many people with his condition are finding that these types of mental disorders can be treated often very successfully” Dr. Schwartz said.

The Aviator’s screening was held at the Egyptian Theatre as a fundraiser for the Friends of NPI, the Neuro Psychiatric Institute which is about to be renamed the Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

For further information, you can visit www.friendsofnpi.org

Photography: Phoebe Krueger