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MENTAL ILLNESS

By: Kenji

There’s a forum thread Great Films Depicting Insanity and Mental Illness worth checking out, and very useful for this list.

I see mental illness as a collective as well as individual, social as well as medical, problem, hence the inclusion of some films here that may raise eyebrows. Individuals need protection from society as well as vice-versa. Oh, the things many of us will do in the name of nationalism /tribalism/ patriotism, fear of foreigners, otherness etc! Monsieur Verdoux wasn’t so far wrong; we sanctify as heroic mass murder by the collective. Isn’t it a strange distortion to imagine one country or religion or gender superior to another? When we’re complementary and in it together. There is of course a widespread propensity to follow en masse any old load of cobblers. This list has lots of films about people seeking or neeeding psychiatric help, and who would be considered as having mental health problems, whether anguish, delusion, psychosis, but really the dividing line between sanity and insanity is often blurred, and also dependent on social constructs. I could have included most films involving human behaviour and thought.

""An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility [and] distrust, which transforms man into an instrument of use and exploitation for others, which deprives him of a sense of self, except inasmuch as he submits to others or becomes an automaton"…“Yet many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to entertain the idea that society as a whole may be lacking in sanity. They hold that the problem of mental health in a society is only that of the number of ‘unadjusted’ individuals, and not of a possible unadjustment of the culture itself” (Erich Fromm)

There was an interesting short BBC TV series a couple of years back with 5 natives of the island of Tanna visiting the advanced civilisation that is the UK. Certain aspects of life seemed most peculiar to them- homeless people lying in the streets, people passing without acknowledgement or reply, aristocrats proudly displaying their mantraps, the food system, formal etiquette, long and regimented working hours, throwaway society…

and remember:
1. Anyone who chooses to see a shrink must need their head examining.
2. Physician, heal thyself

ANTI-PSYCHIATRY

One film i would like to promote is The Other Side of the Underneath. I would also recommend: Titicut Follies, Head Against the Wall, Through a Glass Darkly, The Pumpkin Eater, An Angel at my Table.

This list is in year order

 

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orangutangle

3Feb12

http://mubi.com/films/take-shelter

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Kate

30Jan12

Such a great list. :)

Kenji likes this

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ExperimentoFilm

28Jan12

http://mubi.com/films/a-quiet-place-in-the-country

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davefilkins

19Dec11

Brilliant list. I appreciate your discussion of mental health both as a social worker and an avid film aficionado.

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