Films Illustrating Psychopathology Danny Wedding Mary Ann Boyd ...

Appendix G: Films Illustrating Psychopathology 255
Mine Own Executioner (1947) Drama ΨΨ
Confused and troubled psychoanalyst tries to help
out a schizophrenic veteran.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Comedy ΨΨΨ
Frank Capra film in which Gary Cooper inherits
$20 million and is judged insane when he decides
to give it all away to needy farmers.
Mr. Jones (1993) Drama/Comedy ΨΨΨ
Richard Gere portrays a bipolar patient treated by
a psychiatrist who falls in love with him. This film
raises interesting questions about the therapeutic
relationship and boundary issues in psychotherapy.
No Time for Sergeants (1958) Comedy Ψ
Andy Griffith stars; Don Knotts plays an Army
psychiatrist.
No Way Out (1950) Drama ΨΨΨ
This was Sidney Poitier’s first film. Poitier plays a
black physician treating two racist hoodlums. When
one dies, his brother (Richard Widmark) incites a
race riot. The film was one of the earliest serious
examinations of racism in postwar America.
Nobody’s Child (1986) Biography ΨΨ
Marlo Thomas won an Emmy for her role as a
woman who experiences tremendous personal and
professional success when she is released after
spending 20 years in a mental hospital.
“Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the
moon. We have the stars.”
Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale
addressing her married lover
in Now, Voyager
Now, Voyager (1942) Drama ΨΨΨ
Her psychiatrist and inpatient treatment help sexually
repressed Bette Davis find meaning and purpose
in her life by serving as a surrogate mother for
the daughter of a man she loves. The title comes
from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (“The untold
want by life and land ne’er granted / Now voyager
sail thou forth to seek and find.”)
Nuts (1987) Drama ΨΨΨ
Barbra Streisand plays a prostitute who has killed
a patron. She is resisting an insanity defense, and
through flashbacks we learn that she was sexually
abused as a child. Interesting examination of civil
liberties and forensic psychiatry.
“They was giving me ten
thousand watts a day, you know,
and I’m hot to trot! The next
woman takes me on’s gonna light
up like a pinball machine and pay
off in silver dollars!”
Randle P. McMurphy commenting
on ECT in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Drama ΨΨΨΨΨ
Classic film with Jack Nicholson as Randle P.
McMurphy, who takes on Nurse Ratched and the
psychiatric establishment. The film offers good
insight into life on an inpatient ward, although the
portrayal of ECT is stereotyped and inaccurate; in
addition, the suicide of Billy seems to be simplistically
linked to his domineering mother. This film
took all five of the top Oscars in 1975: Best
Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director,
and Best Screenplay.
Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928)
Historical ΨΨΨ
Historically important silent film that portrays the
burning of Joan of Arc as a heretic. The mental status
of Joan of Arc remains a controversial subject
for historians interested in psychopathology.
President’s Analyst, The (1967) Spy/Comedy ΨΨ
James Coburn plays a psychoanalyst working for
the President of the United States.
Pressure Point (1962) Drama ΨΨΨ
A black psychiatrist (Sidney Poitier) treats a racist
patient (Bobby Darin). Based on a case from
Linder’s The Fifty-Minute Hour.
Prince of Tides, The (1991) Drama/
Romance ΨΨΨ
Barbra Streisand plays a psychiatrist who
becomes sexually involved with the brother of
one of her patients (Nick Nolte). The film raises
interesting questions about the proper limits of
the doctor-patient relationship.
From: Wedding, D., Boyd, M.A., & Niemiec, R.M. Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology
© 2005 Hogrefe & Huber Publishers (www.hogrefe.com)