Any good Psychiatry movies out there?

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whopper

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I'm talking a movie that touches upon any psychiatric/psychological themes that would be beneficial for us psychiatrists.

OK, I don't want to hear the following...

A Beautiful Mind
Awakenings
Gothica

Anyone got any hidden & little known gems that can help out? My program presents movies once in awhile that presents good psychiatric themes.

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There was one with John Cusack, "Identity." Pretty entertaining, from 2003. Also, I liked "Igby Goes Down," which was kind of a darkly funny, well written, quirky indy film about a teenager and his life (sorta Catcher in the Rye-esque). That one starred Kieran Culkin.

Another indy flick, if you like that guy Don Cheadle (from Hotel Rwanda) is "The United States of Leland."

I keep wanting to pick up "Mean Creek" at Blockbuster, which is supposed to be pretty well done, but it's always already rented... Bah!

Check out www.imdb.com for more info.
 
whopper said:
I'm talking a movie that touches upon any psychiatric/psychological themes that would be beneficial for us psychiatrists.

OK, I don't want to hear the following...

A Beautiful Mind
Awakenings
Gothica

Anyone got any hidden & little known gems that can help out? My program presents movies once in awhile that presents good psychiatric themes.
My pick :) -
Session 9
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Antwone Fisher
Spider (2002)
Memento (2000)
 
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Try Behind the Lines also know as Regeneration (1997)

Based on Pat Barker's novel of the same name, 'Regeneration' tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum for emotional troubles. Two of the soldiers meeting there are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets
 
Donnie Darko

Pi

Requiem For A Dream
 
By *far* the best psychiatry movie I've seen is the little-known "Manic," with Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel. It's on DVD. It came out about a year and a half ago but was buried at the box office, so never go the attention it deserved. It's about life in a juvenile psychiatric institution in California, and is both dramatically powerful and realistic in its treatment of mental-health care. In fact, this is the only movie I can think of that treats mental health clinicians as something other than saints (think "Ordinary People") or oppressive demons (think "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest").
For those interested in the ways Hollywood (mis)represents psychiatry, check out Glen Gabbard's book "Psychiatry and the Cinema".
 
I have a suggestion...

Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal.

This documenatry is not on sale. Its shown on the Game Show Network from time to time.

Now how do those whammies on Press You Luck correlate with Psychiatry?

Well it turns out that those whammies were a psychotic hallucination experienced by the creator of the show....

Kidding.

Really, it was a great movie. It turns out that a contestant named Micheal Larsen literally taped the show everyday, and watched it for 5 hours a day. He memorized the pattern of the blinking lights and figured out exactly when to press the button so he could have it land on that square where it always gave you the maximum amount of money & a free spin.

(This all makes sense if you remember the show. If you don't, don't worry about the specifics).

Now this took him a few years. He then signed himself to be a contestant on the show and won over $100,000 in one episode that had to be extended to over 2 hours.

Its psychiatry because the guy had a number of get rich quick schemes, hardly any of which materialized. The winnings he won--well actually its interesting what happened to it--and the results are indicative that he had a true Axis II personality disorder related to getting rich quick.

Its also very entertaining. While he was winnning, he's showing objective signs of elevation with dilated pupils, diaphoresis, a big grin on his face, etc.
 
A couple more...

Loving Walter --- 1982 on DVD/VHS...Man decides a Psych hospital is the only place for him but eventually his spirit wins out and he creates a new life for himself and even finds a love interest. A good one for those who face the folks who ENJOY living their lives away in the hospital. Shows that they do indeed still have hope and strong spirit despite what you probably think.

Lilian's story --- "For 40 years Lilian Singer has been locked up in a mental hospital by her father. Her release is eventually secured and she walks out to a world unfamiliar to her in every way, seeking the love and affection she never got" 2000, DVD/VHS.

The Master and Margaret- 1972 DVD/VHS, European Classic film.. "Writer Nikolai, "the master", is working on a play about Pontius Pilot when two suspicious Soviet government officials begin to follow him. The government has sensured his work, even causing the deaths of two close allies. Paranoia sets in and he believes that the devil is after him and that his assistant, Margaret, is conspiring with other evil forces. Margaret attempts to rescue "the master", from a mental institute, even as the threat of evil forces surround them."

Shine --- 1997 VHS/DVD... "The story of Australian pianist David Helfgott. He experiences a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized, but later returns to the concert hall."

The snake pit --- 2004 DVD/VHS "Following an emotional collapse a woman is placed in a mental institution by her husband. The severity of her depression causes her sympathetic doctor to try electric shock, hydrotherapy, and drugs, along with psychoanalysis."
 
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