Top Ten Films That Feature Mental Illness

[David Baxter PhD]

Top Ten Films That Feature Mental Illness
by Dr. Deb
Sunday, September 06, 2009

I love watching movies. The cinematic experience not only entertains but also informs. Here are my top 10 favorite movies that show mental illness and psychotherapy in a realistic manner.

1. Ordinary People (PTSD, Depression)
My absolute favorite movie of all time because it portrays the human experience of loss so well and it also features psychotherapy in a realistic way. Robert Redford's directorial debut. Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton wow in their performances.

2. A Beautiful Mind (Schizophrenia)
The true story of Nobel Prize Winner John Nash is told in this award winning film. Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly star. Directed by Ron Howard.

3. The Soloist (Schizophrenia)
This is the true story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former Julliard Student, who falls into the depths of schizophrenia. When reporter, Steve Lopez, befriends him, both of their worlds change. The ethical issues of treatment of mental illness are realistically portrayed. Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx offer great performances.

4. Canvas (Schizophrenia)
A young boy moves through the his mother's psychotic episode with the help of his father and friends. Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden and Devon Gearhart are inspiring to watch.

5. Bird (Substance Abuse/Eating Disorder)
The true story of Charlie "Bird" Parker, Jazz legend, and his struggles with mental illness. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Forest Whitaker. Fantastic soundtrack.

6. Rain Man (Autism)
Dustin Hoffman delivers an award winning performance as a man with Autism and Tom Cruise as the brother who doesn't understand him.

7. Fearless (PTSD)
Jeff Bridges is unforgettable in his performance as a survivor of a plane crash as is Rosie Perez in this emotional tale of trauma, loss and recovery.

8. Lars And The Real Girl (Social Anxiety Disorder)
This film knocked me out with its poignant storytelling of a young man living in a rural Minnesota community. Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer star.

9. A Lion In Winter (Personality Disorders, Family Dysfunction)
Various personality disorders as well as maladaptive defense mechanisms often seen in family dysfunction are presented in vivid language and breathtaking performances. Peter O'Toole, Katherine Hepburn and a young Anthony Hopkins dazzle in this award winning film. It's an oldie, but a goodie - and based on the life of King Henry II.

10. The Night Listener (Factitious Disorder)
Robin Williams and Toni Collette tell this true-based story from the experiences of author Armistead Maupin, and his connection to a mysterious young boy.

There are so many more that I could name, but these are my top favs. Head on over to Psychmovies and Cinematherapy.com for more movie suggestions.

 

[Eye Stigmata]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a fantastic movie!
February 1976
"Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse."

This movie actually won 5 oscars, and 28 other awards!

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Yes, it's a good movie but from the point of view of stigma, raising awareness, and reality, which is I think is where Dr. Deb is coming from, I'm not sure it qualifies.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Girl, Interrupted (Borderline Personality Disorder, Self-Injury)
Susanna is depressed and directionless after finishing high school in the late 1960's. A suicide attempt lands her in Claymore, a mental institution. She befriends the band of troubled women in her ward (Georgina the pathological liar, the sexually abused Daisy, the burn victim Polly) but falls under the hypnotic sway of Lisa, the wildest and most hardened of the bunch. Will Susanna "drop anchor" at Claymore and perpetually act out like Lisa, or will she finally pull her mind together and leave institutional life behind? Starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.

Repulsion (Paranoid Schizophrenia)
A Belgian girl, Carol, works as a manicurist at a London beauty salon. While having lunch, a good looking young man, Colin, spots her and makes a date for another evening. She shares a flat with her sister Helen. Her sister's married lover, Michael, brings out her dislike of men which she cannot explain to Colin. Michael takes Helen abroad for a holiday. Left alone in their flat, Carol's moments of catalepsy and hallucination increase and deepen into madness. Directed and co-written by Roman Polanski (1965).

 

[NicNak]

Good Will Hunting

Though Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has a genius-level intellect, eidetic memory and a profound gift for mathematics, he works as a janitor at MIT and lives alone in a sparsely-furnished house in a rundown South Boston neighborhood. An abused foster child, he subconsciously blames himself for his unhappy upbringing and turns this self-loathing into a form of self-sabotage in both his professional and emotional lives.

In the first week of class, Will solves a difficult graduate-level problem taken from algebraic graph theory that Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsg?rd), a Fields Medalist and combinatorialist, leaves on a chalkboard as a challenge posed to his students, hoping someone might find the solution by the end of the semester. When it is solved quickly and anonymously, Lambeau posts a much more difficult problem—one that took him and his colleagues two years to prove. When Lambeau chances upon a janitor writing on the board, Lambeau chases him away. However, when Lambeau returns to the board, he is astounded to find the correct answer there. He then sets out to track Will down.

Meanwhile, Will gets revenge on a bully named Carmine Scarpaglia, who, according to Will, used to beat him up years ago in kindergarten, and he now faces imprisonment after attacking a police officer who was responding to the attack. Realizing Will has enormous potential, Lambeau goes to Will's trial and intervenes on his behalf, offering him a choice: either go to jail, or be released under Lambeau's personal supervision to study mathematics and see a therapist. Will chooses the latter, even though he does not believe he needs therapy.

Will treats the first five psychologists Lambeau has him see with utter contempt. In desperation, Lambeau finally calls on Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), an estranged old friend and MIT classmate who happens to have grown up in the same neighborhood as Will. Sean differs from his predecessors in that he pushes back at Will and is eventually able to get past Will's hostile, sarcastic defense mechanisms. Will is particularly struck when Sean tells him how he gave up his ticket to see the Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series (thus missing Carlton Fisk's famous home run) in order to meet and spend time with a stranger in a bar, who would later become his wife. This encourages Will to try to establish a relationship with Skylar (Minnie Driver), a young English woman he had earlier met at a bar near Harvard University.

more....

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I received this email from a reader:

I read your top films that deal with mental illnesses. I was interested in reading this because we run the Imagine Film Festival at our centre.

This is the second year and we highlight films that depict or focus on mental health issues.
Last year we had Joe Pantoliano come out and talk following the screening of Canvas.

Here is a link to this year's event if it is useful in the debate about top movies.

Imagine Film Festival

Chris Bovie
Community Relations Officer
Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences
700 Gordon Street
Whitby, Ontario
L1N 5S9
Phone: 905-430-4055 Ext. 6574
Fax: 905-430-4025
Ontario Shores

 

[Retired]

I was surprised not to see Awakenings the Robin Williams movie about dystonia.

However I recently saw a movie on TCM made in the mid fifties about multiple personality disorder. I believe it's called The Three Faces of Eve and is a biographical account of a lady diagnosed with multiple personalities.

Considering it was made in the early days of modern psychiatry, I found it to be a compelling story told in a compassionate manner.

There's another mid fifties psychiatry movie that portrays the biases against women in medicine, but I cannot recall the title.

 

[Daniel E.]

However I recently saw a movie on TCM made in the mid fifties about multiple personality disorder. I believe it's called The Three Faces of Eve and is a biographical account of a lady diagnosed with multiple personalities.

IMHO, it did more harm than good.

 

[Retired]

IMHO, it did more harm than good.

Why was that, Daniel? Did it have to do with all the smoking in the film?

 

[Daniel E.]

DID or MPD is still over-diagnosed, and I assume that film had some role in that, at least historically.

In contrast, OCD tends to be under-diagnosed, and there have been a couple good films about OCD like The Aviator and As Good As It Gets.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten aboiut The Aviator - an excellent addition to the list.

 

[Ashe]

I really enjoyed Girl, Interrupted although I found it to be an extremely depressing movie (but I was also depressed at the time it came out ). But even watching it later it's still depressing, but I like it anyway.

I also really enjoyed Good Will Hunting, it was very nice.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I think Girl, Interrupted is interesting/quirky in that there are things in the movie that convey optimism, but, yes, there are other things that are quite sad. I think the overall message is that persevering and not fighting those who genuinely want to help you does provide hope for something better in one's life. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's trying to help and who's just trying to dominate or control, I guess.

 

[Banned]

I've been trying to watch this movie for weeks now, and can't seem to get my hands on it. I'll have to keep looking. I did rent it when it first came out, and honestly I feel asleep (I often do - not because they are boring), so now I'm trying to get it again.

 

[crzycadn]

Has anyone seen the movie "Nuts" (made in the 70's I think)with Barbara Striesand and Richard Dryfeuss? She plays a hooker who kills a john in self-defense and has to go to a hearing to determine her sanity to stand trial. It turns out she is a survivor of child sexual abuse. I thought it was a great movie.

 

[Jazzey]

I watched "the Soloist" a few weeks ago. I loved every aspect of it. But, I won't lie. For me, the topic was a little heavy. You're left debating whether people suffering with schizophrenia need the medications...Having said that, it's a beautiful movie to watch in terms of just acknowledging that we all have something to offer this life....Yes, I know it sounds corny,but I really believe it. Both of the main actors really portrayed that dichotomy for me...

N.B.: I have a few family members that suffer from schizophrenia. I would never want them to stop their medications. I firmly believe, that in their circumstances, medications are not an option. Sorry. I loved the movie, that was the only part that I struggled with.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

YouTube trailers added for each film listed in the first post.

 

[Daniel E.]

:cool2:

 

[Domo]

Ordinary People was such a great movie!

I also highly recommend Clean, Shaven.

I'd be careful what mood you are in when you watch it though as it might be a little disturbing/heavy for some.

 

[SoSo]

One movie that was mentioned One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest I saw when it first came out. Terrified me. That was why I would never seek help when I got depressed or when the PTSD was really bad. A member of my family was locked up in a asylum in the late 50's and it was so much like that movie, it really terrified me beyond reason.

My favourite, Patch Adams, shows how a person can bring joy to those who do suffer while in an institution himself, then go on to do even more through improving themselves. i will have to look into some of the other movies mentioned here, just can't watch violent ones so will check them out first.
SoSo