mental health movies

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:22 pm

I cleared this post with Dale.

I recently watched the movie Sybil, starring Sally Field, for the first time. I was really fascinated. I'm wondering if anybody here has thoughts on the movie and any recommended movies that are similar to it, which deal with problems of the mind? The only other one I've watched is Girl, Interrupted.

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:26 pm

A Beautiful Mind - good movie on lots of levels. Bio. Period piece. Example of someone coping with serious mental illness. And Russell Crowe is pretty much always good.

missy · Post by **missy** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:02 pm

Cran- the book is much better (and WAY more intense) than the movie.

There's always the movie referred to by Sybil (at least in the book) - "Three Faces of Eve".

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:40 pm

I remember seeing Sybil on tv a long time ago. Left a pretty good impression on me, I guess, since there aren't too many old tv movies I would be able to remember such distinct images of.

Nowadays I seem to avoid the heavy stuff, except I have watched Away From Her, and have another called A Song For Martin on my Netflix queue. But I think it comes down to my being interested in themes that are very close to me, because I kind of have no choice, whereas I still don't want to immerse myself in hard life themes that I can avoid.

I would rather watch a film on mental health though, than on seamy, gritty--no matter how artistically compelling--violence*. I guess I pick and choose my harsh doses of reality.

*Sweeney Todd does not count. Too over-the-top to be real.
Blood Diamond would count, consequently I have not seen it.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 4:54 pm

One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest, while not like Sybil, is a great one, mental illness being only one of the themes.

I remember watching Sybil when it originally aired and being spellbound. (those cat heads were scary too) Within the last year I watched part of it again with my daughter. She couldn't believe that it was based on a real person and that a mother could be so horribly evil to her child. It is an unforgettable film.

BillChin · Post by **BillChin** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:00 pm

I saw "Sybil" many, many moons ago and barely remember it.

Some other movies that come to mind include the already mentioned "A Beautiful Mind," dealing with delusions and hallucinations. More tangential was "K Pax," which is set in a mental hospital, though it is ambiguous whether the main character is mentally ill.

Some more: Jack Nicholson has his famous role in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," in which some say the patients are portrayed as more sane than their keepers, and Nicholson's more recent "As Good As It Gets" which is not really about mental illness, but the character does have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

One of the most recent movies is "Canvas," with a schizophrenic main character. I haven't seen it, but it was a big deal for the mental health community. The NY Times review says "Canvas" is sugar coated, but that a more realistic movie would be too painful for most audiences to want to go see. The movie’s title refers both to [character] Mary’s therapeutic painting, which, she explains, quiets the voices inside her head, and to John’s construction of a sailboat in the backyard as a present for her. Emmline might be interested in "Canvas," after her thread about the painter and his self portraits as his mind slipped away into dementia.

With the recent news coverage of certain high profile celebrities, "The Doors," with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison can give a glimpse into what might be going on.

jlunt · Post by **jlunt** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:54 pm

"Frances", about actress Frances Farmer's descent into paranoid schizophrenia and eventual involuntary commitment. Not a very cheery film. Difficult to watch, as I remember.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:20 pm

Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock

emmline wrote: *Sweeney Todd does not count. Too over-the-top to be real.

Have you seen the old version? http://www.archive.org/details/SweeneyTodd

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:30 pm

cowtime wrote:One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest, while not like Sybil, is a great one, mental illness being only one of the themes.

I remember watching Sybil when it originally aired and being spellbound. (those cat heads were scary too) Within the last year I watched part of it again with my daughter. She couldn't believe that it was based on a real person and that a mother could be so horribly evil to her child. It is an unforgettable film.

Sybil's mother was also very mentally sick. Who tore the cat's head off? I couldn't figure that out.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:49 pm

I couldn't tell you how many times that I've read and seen Sybil. It doesn't matter how cut the cat's head off but if I had to guess, it was Sybil's mom. Missy is right the book is better but I also think Sally Field did absolutely brilliant playing that role.

I'm glad mental illness is finally coming out in the open.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:56 pm

I was surprized that the movie lasted as long as it did.

I never was a fan of Sally Field until I watched that movie. She does such an awesome job, it's creepy. I watched a special DVD feature (from 2006, I think) where the filmmakers say that they almost didn't cast Sally Field, as she came in for her interview at lunch time or something like that.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:51 pm

I remember my mother watching that movie when I was about 6. I was supposed to be in bed, asleep, but I could hear the music from the movie, and it scared the living daylights out of me. So, since I couldn't sleep, I sat at the top of the stairs sobbing, and begging my mother to turn it off. I can remember it like it was yesterday, and I still am unable to watch the movie because of it, despite getting over my fear of scary movies long ago. In other words, I don't sob and beg Mr Izz to turn his intense movies off...this is definitely a good thing, at least in his eyes

dwest · Post by **dwest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:22 am

Post by **Dale** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:24 am

mutepointe wrote:I couldn't tell you how many times that I've read and seen Sybil. It doesn't matter how cut the cat's head off but if I had to guess, it was Sybil's mom. Missy is right the book is better but I also think Sally Field did absolutely brilliant playing that role.

I'm glad mental illness is finally coming out in the open.

At the risk of breaking my own rule about medical posts--and asking that we all avoid giving medical advice on the forums--it might be useful for people to know that there is a tremendous amount of controversy among the mental health professions about multiple personality disorder. There are believers and their are skeptics and there are agnostics. I am in the latter group, leaning toward the skeptic group. Actually, the controversy peaked some years ago.

Part of the difficulty comes from the Three Faces of Eve, Sybil, and other fictional and semi-fictional pieces that are so much a part of pop culture. This has created a huge suggestibility problem among the most, well, suggestible people. For awhile there, there was a good bit of malingering regarding that diagnosis for people accused of violent crimes. (That seems to have leveled off as we've gotten further out from Sybil and it's spawn.) Also, MPD became a huge component of the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria which is now entirely discredited. Adding to the public's confusion, of course, is the lingering confusion of the terms "schizophrenia" and "multiple personality disorder." The former is sadly all too common, but has nothing in common with MPD. In 30 years of involvement as a student and a professional in mental health, half of which was spent in a tertiary care hospital setting, I never met anyone with MPD, nor have any of the colleagues I've worked with closely along the way. (I did speak a few times with a woman who said she had it, as a result of satanic abuse, and she subsequently came to understand that she did not have the disorder at all and it was shaped up in her by a therapist who was all about MPD.

With the exception of some misguided professionals who were highly involved in the SRA/MPD fiasco, I can't tell you how rare it is to hear professionals talk about these alleged cases. I'm open to the idea that this diagnosis exists, is rare, and most likely doesn't resemble the Hollywood versions much at all. But, I doubt even this. I think it is largely a culture-bound (North America) and iatrogenic phenomena.

Not to rain on the Sally Field parade or anything.

Ronbo · Post by **Ronbo** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:28 am

Didn't some hollywood wag give Sally Field a lot of credit for playing a multiple personality, "Especially since she doesn't have a personality of her own" ?