Finding Mental Illness in Movies

Melinda Beck in the Wall Street Journal has an article on using fiction films to train psychiatrists. I’ve used clips from Girl Interrupted and A Beautiful Mind in classes on psychopathology. The Harry Potter references seem a bit, um, Freudian in the least interesting sense. The Interactive section has a little quiz where you can match diagnosis up with a film, then watch clips from the movie.

Interestingly, a third of the disorders in the quiz are what are classified as personality disorders. Perhaps because the more florid types of personality distortions (antisocial, narcissistic, borderline) are dramatic, while depression and paranoia are a little more uncomfortable for people. Personality diagnoses are pretty rare in practice, though I would argue they need to be more taken into account in treatment. In some way, some filmmakers are more tuned in to the force of personality in shaping human behavior than many clinicians.

I liked Beck’s mention of the few good portrayals of therapists in popular fiction. I would add the therapists in HBO’s In Treatment to the list. The drama in the show is more about the overidentification and over-involvement of Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) with his patient’s problems (and ultimately one of his patients). Even though most therapists may have found themselves jumping up and yelling at some of Paul’s more ludicrous faux pas, it was a generally good view of what happens in the therapy room. I have a feeling that most non-therapists can probably separate out what is fictional license, in the same we non-police have a sense that real life as a cop is fairly un-like what is seen in film.