Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle: A Schizotypal Personality Analysis

Introduction to Travis Bickle

The facts presented to the viewer about Travis Bickle paint, in the most general sense, a portrait of a certain level of pathology. Travis Bickle is a decorated Vietnam veteran who appears to suffer from PTSD. The viewer also quickly learns that Travis does not have many friends: he is socially isolated, and this appears to be connected, at least in part, to his difficulty forming and maintaining relationships.

It becomes clear very quickly that Travis Bickle is prone to disturbances in his judgment, perception, and decision-making. The very reason he takes a job driving a taxi — thus giving the film its title — is that he has trouble sleeping, suffering from insomnia, a common symptom of PTSD. Bickle claims he got lonely just walking around, and thought that working nights would make him feel less isolated. Another person without Bickle's pathology might have taken up a hobby, visited social venues, or joined group activities in order to meet people. Instead, Bickle chooses to drive a cab: his interactions with people are therefore limited, mostly one-on-one, avoid sustained face-to-face contact, and carry a transactional quality that prevents genuine connection.

As the film progresses, the viewer watches Bickle's pathology further unfold and the darker sides of his personality begin to emerge. He can act angry and hostile, engages in paranoid behaviors, and maintains a strong focus on revenge. Much of his thought process seems to revolve around a need for rigid control over his life, combined with clearly delusional thinking about the world and his place in it. A preoccupation with violence is a consistent thread running through his behavior.

Single Diagnosis: Schizotypal Personality Disorder

The most accurate diagnosis of Travis Bickle is that he suffers from schizotypal personality disorder. Research examining the most consistent characteristics of individuals with this disorder has found that defense mechanisms play an overwhelming role in schizotypal personality disorder (Perry et al., 2013). Travis Bickle clearly demonstrates these tendencies. His paranoid behavior motivates many of his actions, and much of what he does alone in his apartment exhibits a strong degree of unusual thinking. For example, the viewer watches Bickle hold his hand over the flame of a candle, apparently in an effort to feel pain and thereby become stronger and more desensitized to it — a striking illustration of disordered cognition.

The profound loneliness of Bickle's behavior is also a hallmark of schizotypal personality disorder. Research has identified overlaps between schizotypal personality disorder and Asperger's Disorder, noting that both involve disorganization in the social-interpersonal and communication domains of functioning (Hurst et al., 2007). This description accurately captures Bickle's behavior. He has a great deal of trouble relating even to fellow taxi drivers, and he quickly alienates Betsy after just one date. His clear inability to read social situations is demonstrated when he takes Betsy to a pornographic film, apparently not recognizing that this would make her uncomfortable and prompt her to end the date. Indeed, one could argue that Bickle is unable to perceive the facial cues Betsy gives off indicating her discomfort. Successful social interaction depends on the ability to decode others' facial expressions — an aspect of social cognition with which people who have this disorder consistently struggle (Sugranyes et al., 2011).

Support for the Diagnosis

A substantial portion of Bickle's life is characterized by social isolation, which is a central feature of schizotypal personality disorder. His existence is narrow: he drives a cab, lives alone, and frequents pornographic movie theaters. His choice of such films itself reflects his deep loneliness — a desire to witness the most intimate connection two people can share — yet it only isolates him further, as the audiences for such films tend to consist of other solitary individuals. The three narrow spheres in which Bickle moves are consistent with the core traits of schizotypal disorder, which often include the characteristics of adult attachment dysfunction marked by social isolation, overprotection, and self-insulation (Berry et al., 2007). One can therefore argue that the loneliness Bickle is able to sustain actively perpetuates his pathology and reinforces his symptoms.

Conclusion

Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver demonstrates numerous characteristics of schizotypal personality disorder. Bickle's social isolation fuels his loneliness and insulation from the world, which in turn distorts his perception of reality and deepens his disconnect from other people. This disconnect allows his paranoia to grow unchecked. Alongside a predilection for insomnia, Bickle gravitates toward violence — both symptoms potentially linked to his experiences in Vietnam. Eventually, Bickle's condition reaches a critical severity, and his homicidal tendencies manifest openly in the real world. The film traces the trajectory of a lonely, troubled veteran who begins with mild symptoms of schizotypal disorder and ends as a gun-wielding figure acting out violently on the margins of society — a trajectory rendered all the more disturbing by the cultural resonance the film has maintained for nearly five decades.

References

Berry, K., Band, R., & Corcoran, R. (2007). Attachment styles, earlier interpersonal relationships and schizotypy in a non-clinical sample. Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 80(4), 563–576.

Filmsite.org. (2013). Taxi Driver (1976). Retrieved from http://www.filmsite.org/taxi3.html

Hurst, R., Nelson-Gray, R., & Mitchell, J. (2007). The relationship of Asperger's characteristics and schizotypal personality traits in a non-clinical adult sample. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 37(9), 1711–1720.

Perry, C. J., & Presniak, M. D. (2013). Defense mechanisms in schizotypal, borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality disorders. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 76(1), 32–52.

Sugranyes, G., Kyriakopoulos, M., & Corrigall, R. (2011). Autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia: Meta-analysis of the neural correlates of social cognition. PLoS ONE, 6(10), 1–13.