Mental illness is represented heavily in all forms of media. It’s a common occurrence for a reference to mental illness to be made when talking about the suspect of a violent crime. The most popular movies, television shows and books all seem to have characters suffering from a mental illness usually it’s an illness that is heavily visual and interesting to watch (anxiety, OCD, narcissism). Depression is portrayed through crying or suicide contemplation, while more common but less visually exciting symptoms like fatigue, irritability and loss of interest are left out.
Every so often the writers do their research and give an accurate description of these mental illnesses, so here is a sampling of some movies (and a TV show) that shows this off.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — Perhaps the most famous movie depicting a mental institution, McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) doesn’t have a mental illness so much as he wants a shorter and easier jail sentence. The film, however, does show several patients who have accurate depictions of varied mental illnesses and, more importantly, it shows the reaction to and treatment of mental illness. Perhaps it’s a little outdated, but it still holds as a good representation.
Garden State — In 2004, Zach Braff removed his scrubs and tried to take his comedy to a more serious level. “Garden State” shows an excellent rendition of depression. Braff’s character shows all the signs: fatigue, loss of interest and difficulty concentrating, just to name a few. As previously mentioned, most of these symptoms are often overlooked in depictions of depression.
Lars and the Real Girl — Many might have missed Ryan Gosling in his performance as Lars, a young man who suffers from delusional disorder and starts up a romance (non-sexual, so don’t get too freaked out) with an anatomically correct sex doll. What “Lars and the Real Girl” is praised for here is the way it deals with the mental illness. Instead of simply medicating Lars and trying to forget about the issues he has, the people of his small town come together and work with him and his “girlfriend,” Bianca, as a sort of group therapy.
American Beauty — Almost all the characters in this movie suffer from one mental illness or another. It looks as though someone flipped through pages of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” and picked disorders at random. The Burnham family breaks down to a mother with narcissism, a daughter with borderline personality disorder and a father with passive aggressive disorder. Meanwhile, next door, the Kane family has a father suffering with paranoid disorder, a son with Schizotypal disorder and mother with avoidant disorder. The movie shows a somewhat over-the-top depiction of what happens when people with different mental disorders collide.
Little Miss Sunshine — This wonderful little comedy shows a family where pretty much everyone is suffering from one mental illness or another. The narcissistic father, the brother who is dealing with depression and a recent suicide attempt and the son dealing with a developmental disorder with mutism are all characters dealing with mental illness, and it is only by some miracle that the family is able to stay stable and stay together.
United States of Tara — Mental health on television is sometimes dealt with in a light or humorous manner without showing the consequences. However, for three seasons on Showtime, “United States of Tara” did a decent job showing what happens when a family has to deal with one member’s mental illness and the issue of someone with a mental illness deciding to get off medication. The show also gives a sampling of the chaos a mental illness like dissociative identity disorder can bring not only to an individual but also to the family.
Perhaps these movies don’t always offer a 100 percent accurate depiction of mental illness, but without having to deal with these issues personally and without spending years caring for someone with mental illness, it’s hard to form that attachment in only an hour or two. Perhaps that’s why people in movies are able to overcome issues quicker than in real life. So, next time you watch a movie with mental illness, look for something that represents an accurate depiction, rather than something over the top like “Monk,” who, even though he has a severe form of OCD, manages to overcome it every week, only to be back in the same place by the next episode.
http://www.westerncourier.com/the_edge/mental-health-in-film/article_816a56fe-2e93-11e2-8740-0019bb30f31a.html
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