Top Ten Films That Feature Mental Illness

[NicNak]

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.

This was one of my favorites too, I actually have it on DVD. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. It is a great movie I agree.

Thanks for the nice reminder about this great movie! It is also based on a true story, which makes it even more heart warming.

 

[Jazzey]

"Ordinary people"..One of my favorite movies. Watched it again tonight for the first time in a long time...

 

[Banned]

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

This was on TV here the other night and I managed to watch it. I really like this movie, too. Robin Williams is really inspiring in it.

 

[Meg]

Reign Over Me is another one about PTSD and depression in a man who lost his wife and child on 9/11. It's been a while since I watched it, but I remember it being quite good.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I've never been able to bring myself to watch any of the 911 films. Watching the footage on TV was enough - the images are still burned into my brain.

 

[Domo]

Reign Over Me was good. It didn't actually have anything to do with 9/11 as such. Just that he lost a family in it.

It was interesting and suprisingly good to see Adam Sandler in a serious role.

 

[Jazzey]

Mary & Max {warning: I found that it could be a little triggering, at times - I had to watch it in chunks}

 

[Domo]

Mary And Max was brilliant! I saw that the other weekend.

Nurse Betty was suprisingly decent too.

 

[Jazzey]

Yes, my brother recommended Mary & Max and I really enjoyed it. I'm not usually into animations, but this was really well done and heart warming.

 

[SyntheticSmile]

Lots a good ones! I really liked Girl, Interupted, Prozac Nation and The Fisher King with Robin Williams. Hmmm... Robin Williams sure seems to be in a lot of "crazy" movies...

 

[Banned]

I saw Prozac Nation for the first time a few nights ago. I had never heard of it but found it to be quite good. I will likely follow up with the book.

 

[amastie]

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.

IMHO, it did more harm than good.

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.

As someone diagnosed with DID (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) I've found the best therapy ever with a psychiatist who is expert in this condtiion (and is therefore able to provide the best therapy that I've ever had)however films such as Three Faces Of Eve do a disservice to some extent to many of those who have DID because not all of us act out in such a way. 'The Three Faces of Eve' brought DID/MPD to the attention of the public but (expecially at such an early stage in the understanding of such a diagnosis) it could not speak to the range of experience and ways of coping that people with DID bring.

Personally, I identified more (and was more drawn to) the tv film "The Poet" (aka "Little Girl Fly Away") starring Mare Winningham. I thought that was very well done.

 

[Murray]

I know that it is a TV show and not a movie, but has anyone watched The US of Tara? In the show the main character Tara has DID and I was just wondering what people thought of how the show portrayed this.

 

[Domo]

I really liked it. I have no idea if it's acurate but i liked it....

---------- Post added at 02:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 AM ----------

I watched a movie last night called Shattered Lives.

Synopsis from Shattered Lives Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes

Her fears and inability to cope with the harsh realities of life becoming so intense that they manifest themselves in an altered state of reality, a schizophrenic girl begins taking orders from a... Her fears and inability to cope with the harsh realities of life becoming so intense that they manifest themselves in an altered state of reality, a schizophrenic girl begins taking orders from a pair of clown dolls who instruct her to murder her adulterous mother. Rachel is a small girl with a fragile mind. Her allegiance to her parents irreparably fractured when she is forced to keep her mother's extramarital affair a secret from her father, Rachel can't figure out how to handle the situation until her clown dolls, Melo and Lelo, offer an unsettling piece of advice: kill your mother and in the process absolve her of the evil that has infected her soul. It doesn't take long for Rachel to act on the grim suggestion, but as she grows up and her psyche becomes more fractured, the cycle of violence continues.



It was good but i found it fairly disturbing. Not sure why because i have seen a lot worse. I think the way her mother treated her made me feel sick.

 

[Andy]

This is a horror movie? Was it cheesy like most these days?

 

[Domo]

Nah i wouldn't call it a horror...

There were a few slightly gory bits but it's really just a story of a broken girl.

 

[amastie]

Re Domonation: Synopsis from Shattered Lives Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes

It would disturb me too and I had a great mother.
Your synopsis was enough to put me of it.

---------- Post added at 02:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 AM ----------

I know that it is a TV show and not a movie, but has anyone watched The US of Tara? In the show the main character Tara has DID and I was just wondering what people thought of how the show portrayed this.

Not entirely sure why but I've never been drawn to this show. My immediate response is that I don't relate to the character of the lead actress (herself an Australian like me). Actually, I've never seen this actress, Toni Collette, in a role that I have liked. I didn't even like Muriel's Wedding in which she starred so maybe I just have a thing about the actress?

---------- Post added at 03:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:42 AM ----------

Also not a film, but I saw a wonderful documentary on compulsive hoarding recently and the isolating effect of OCD. Am waiting for it to be repeated. It was in part sponsored by an OCD organization. It was called "Extraordinary Hoarders".

Another wonderful documentary was on Manic Depression, narrated by the wonderful, British comic/actor Stephen Fry and was called "Stephen Fry: A Private Life"

 

[no1isin]

On a lighter note, there is a new comedy that came out last week called All About Steve.
I thought it showed that people with a mental illness though sometimes have strange behaviour are not dangerous. It was funny and sad and has a great lesson to teach.

 

[Mari]

I watched 'I Am Sam' the other evening and I thought it was incredibly touching and shows various aspects of the lack of support for people in need. I cried throughout but I am not sure if that is a good review or not since I never watch any movie without a box of tissue handy. :2thumbs: Mari

Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks and is obsessed with the Beatles. He has a daughter with a homeless woman; she abandons them as soon as they leave the hospital. He names his daughter Lucy Diamond (after the Beatles song), and raises her. But as she reaches age 7 herself, Sam's limitations start to become a problem at school; she's intentionally holding back to avoid looking smarter than him. The authorities take her away, and Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison into taking his case pro bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and whether it's really all you need.

 

[amastie]

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.

I must say that I am at a loss to think objectively about the over or under diagnosis of MPD but I wholeheartedly agree Daniel with "As Good As It Gets" - it manages at once to be very funny but also extremely moving in both its depiction of someone with OCD managing through life but then to make the point that, in the end, you live with as good as it gets is, to me, a terribly meaningful, poignant insight for many living with all forms of mental illness. And no-one could have done it better than Jack Nicholson.