[firemonkey]

From Psycho to Shutter Island, why is the portrayal of mental illness in the movies stuck in the dark ages?

Cinema has long been bad news for the mentally ill, typically representing them as the likes of Psycho's Norman Bates – crazed, dangerous and in need of harsh restraint. Film-makers have treated them as conveniently dehumanised as useful monsters, inviting cinemagoers to assume they should be feared, shunned and confined.

So what, you may feel: people can tell the difference between fiction and fact. Unfortunately, such research as has been conducted suggests otherwise. It has shown the mass media shapes people's ideas about mental illness, and that entertainment plays a bigger role in this process than factual output. In focus groups, people with hostile attitudes have cited films like Psycho as influences on their outlook.

http://www.guardian....od-mental-block

[kryptos]

Sir
I have not seen the movie,"Psycho",but Hollywood HAS brought out
wholesome entertainers like,"A Beautiful Mind".

[alienpresence]

kryptos, on 23 July 2010 - 04:43 AM, said:

Sir
I have not seen the movie,"Psycho",but Hollywood HAS brought out
wholesome entertainers like,"A Beautiful Mind".

I believe the young ones, the impressionable souls they are, are far more likey to view The Crazies.....sir.

[CaptSpaceBat]

kryptos, on 23 July 2010 - 03:43 AM, said:

Sir
I have not seen the movie,"Psycho",but Hollywood HAS brought out
wholesome entertainers like,"A Beautiful Mind".

and "Rain Man"

[I am an Aardvark]

I enjoyed Shutter Island - though that it was a very good film.

[I am an Aardvark]

It's as damming of psychiatry as it is mental patients -

[ghost]

How many horror movies are 'the psycho'? hundreds, maybe thousands, whenever something is done that is terrible its the 'maniacs, insane'. Rain man and a beautiful mind are a couple but very rare indeed. Even Batman puts the criminals in the asylum, super hero stories usually involve a nemesis that is 'insane'. Ive not seen shutter island yet, is it any good?

[I am an Aardvark]

ghost, on 23 July 2010 - 12:40 PM, said:

Ive not seen shutter island yet, is it any good?

Yes - it's worth watching.

[mysticmeg]

The hours , my left foot and dead man's shoes. so many , so many. Poppy shakespeare. I then googled mad scientist and voila
http://en.wikipedia...._mad_scientists

[Lily - Rethink]

Last year Time to Change did a bit of work around film and how it contributed to (or challenged) mental health stigma. They produced a report called 'Screening Madness' - you can read it here if it's of interest to you -

http://www.mind.org....reening_madness

[Wolfwoman]

I would like to see a film being made about mental health that doesnt show that people with mental health problems are dangerous. I think one flew over the cuckoos nest is good although as it was made in the seventies the treatment is different it is more backwards with giving people lobtomotys but it shows that the people in the ward have problems but are not dangerous unlike shutter island, madhouse and psycho.

[keeping positive]

I really enjoyed a beautiful mind, it was a really heartwarming film, I also enjoyed Shutter Island, I don't think Leonardo's character was portrayed as being "mad", just someone who had lost his way and needed to face his fears in order to recover. I think if my partner killed my children the way his did I'd block it out also and retreat into a nicer world.

Another film I saw recently was girl interrupted, apparently based on a true story however it's left to the viewers to decide whether she was mentally ill or not,she was left in a psychiatric hospital for over a year, it's a bit of a strange one I thought.

[Byronic Antihero]

firemonkey, on 23 July 2010 - 01:57 AM, said:

Cinema has long been bad news for the mentally ill, typically representing them as the likes of Psycho's Norman Bates – crazed, dangerous and in need of harsh restraint.

Most mentally-ill people are boring. How many newspapers report 'local man had a nice cup of tea, followed by an afternoon nap' in your area? It's only at the extreme ends (having a bad day, not taking medication) that a lay-person even recognises a mentally-ill person for what they are.

The media thrives on caricatures and sensationalism, whether journalists or film-makers. We have not progressed from the days of P. T. Barnum, so why are we surprised?

All characters in film are painted in the broadest brush-strokes; here a Hyborean Barbarian, there a femme fatale... No trait can exist in such a medium unless it can be rammed down the viewer's throat in the first scene in which they appear. A loose-cannon cop will argue with his lieutenant the first time he visits the station, eye candy will often find themselves in a bikini (chainmail or otherwise, as genre dictates) before you even hear their voice, a computer-geek will be logged into World of Warcraft or crack a Lord of the Rings joke when the hero first goes to meet them...

Why should a film-maker create a realistic portrayal of mental-illness? Where's the profit?

[ramboself]

I liked the bit in psycho 3 were the dr is saying to norman bates "they're trying to destabilise you" then the phone rings and it's mother

Tryed to see dr today about neck pains had to come home as i couldn't handle the long wait, theres a health and social care centre that put a note through the letterbox so i'm trying to change drs but i'm worried my present dr knows me from when i had a shrink and is more likely to be supportive with the dwp

[Wolfwoman]

just got girl interrupted to give it a watch, i think dramas about mental illness are better than horror movies as they are more true to life. benny and joon is a good one aswell its about a woman and she has a mental health problem and her brother is her carer and then she falls in love along the way.

[eyewashere]

I liked Equus.

Equus (1977) - IMDb

• User rating: 7.1/10 ·
• Drama/Mystery
• 137 min ·
• 3,595 ratings

Directed by Sidney Lumet. With Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright.

The movie starts as a result of a violent act against six horses but it is the psychiatrist's (Richard Burton) exploration of his own mind within the relationship with his patient that I found interesting.
The patient's problem is basically Freudian but the psychiatrist's problem is deeply humanistic.

[Aladinsane]

Girl Interupted is quite a good film, centeres around a girl with BPD, and her experiences as an inpatient, as a caveat though this could be highly triggering as it covers a lot of sensitive issues.

[Aladinsane]

Another of my favourite films is a comedy from the 80's called, "The Dream Team", about a group of Psychiatric patiens who go on a trip to a ball game, it stars Micheal Keaton, it's very funny and chalenges a lot of stereotypical views along the way.