Mental illness in films

Mental illness has appeared frequently as a major theme or background element in films.

Characteristics

A striking feature of the overwhelming majority of fictional (as distinct from documentary) film presentations of psychiatric disorders is their gross distortion of the phenomena ostensibly portrayed. The films that do most closely adhere to psychiatric reality include those, such as two French films starring Isabelle Adjani, that are based on actual persons (Camille Claudel and Adèle Hugo, daughter of Victor Hugo).

On the other hand, some films that purport to recount authentic psychiatric cases have raised doubts. Thus, psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel, who consulted in the "Sybil" case, has stated the view that Shirley Ardell Mason ("Sybil") had been manipulated by her Freudian psychiatrist, Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur, into acting like a person with dissociative identity disorder ("mulitiple personality disorder").

Among the least convincing "serious" films, especially at several decades' remove from their production, are those that attempt to be didactic, such as Spellbound and The Snake Pit.

In action, thriller and horror movies, characters who suffer from mental illnesses often resort to violence or dangerous behavior. Examples are Leatherface, Renfield, Hannibal Lecter, Colonel Kurtz, John Rambo.

Mental illness is often used for comedic effect in films. "Crazy" characters provide amusing moments in film comedies and cartoons, often depicting "mental illness" as a type of fun for the characters who, due to their illness, have an alibi to act stupid, weird or annoying to their environment. Examples of this type of "mentally ill" comedic characters include Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, The Marx Brothers, Ace Ventura, The Mask, several characters in the Monty Python films.

See also: Fictional characters with mental illness

Examples

• Spellbound (1945)
• Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
• The Snake Pit (1948)
• Whirlpool (1949)
• The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
• Psycho (1960)
• David and Lisa (1962)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• Repulsion (1965)
• One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• The Story of Adele H. (1975)
• Sybil (1976)
• Caligula (1979)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• Ordinary People (1980)
• The Shining (1980)
• Fatal Attraction (1987)
• Dead Ringers (1988)
• Camille Claudel (1988)
• Rain Man (1988)
• Misery (1990)
• Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Benny & Joon (1993)
• The Madness of King George (1993)
• This Boy's Life (1993)
• Crumb (1994)
• Shine (1996)
• Patch Adams (1998)
• Girl, Interrupted (1999)
• Memento (2000)
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• The Hours (2002)
• Spider (2002)
• The Aviator (2004)
• Taare Zameen Par (2007)
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

See also

• Mental disorders in art and literature

Notes

References

• Danny Wedding, Mary Ann Boyd and Ryan M. Niemiec, Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology, 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA, Hogrefe & Hufer Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0889372926.
• David J. Robinson, Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions, Rapid Psychler Press, 2003, ISBN 1894328078.
• Glen O. Gabbard and Krin Gabbard, Psychiatry and the Cinema, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2nd ed., 1999, ISBN 0880489642.
• Otto F. Wahl, Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness, Piscataway, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 0813522137.