The Morass of Academic Fraud: Is There the Possibility of Redemption?

Reviews the film, The Words by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal (2012). In this film, the main character is a struggling writer who cannot publish his work. On a honeymoon trip to Paris, he comes upon an old attaché case in an antique store, and his bride purchases it for him. When home, he discovers that there is a typed novel in it: a moving story of an American soldier’s love story with a French woman during World War II. The writer enters the typed pages of the found manuscript into his computer. His wife discovers it and, thinking that it is her husband’s work, demands that he publish it, as it is such a moving piece of art. The young struggling writer, who does not deny that he is the author, shows the work to a publisher. The publisher enthusiastically publishes it. The book goes on to become a best-seller and launches the writer’s career as the hottest celebrated author in America. The moving theme for this movie is that the direst consequences are not external ones such as ridicule, being fired, or being forced to have articles retracted. The most damning consequences may be upon one’s view of oneself, especially self-doubt—wondering whether one could have ever succeeded on the basis of one’s own work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)