# Mental illness in movies. (spoilers likely) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476 "2003-07-28T17:59:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/21 "2003-07-29T16:33:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TeaRoses \* > **But one of the things that bothers me, especially in older and ligher works, is the way therapy is always shown as stupid and ineffective (OK some people believe it is… but yeesh) It’s always just a big joke where no one ever gets better. There are exceptions…** …One of which is _Ordinary People_ from 1980. The family (Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton) is reeling from the death of their older son (Hutton is the younger). Hutton is in therapy (doctor played by Judd Hirsch) trying to cope with the loss, and makes real progress. It could be argued that his healing has more to do with a romance he tentatively strikes up, but the therapy sessions are certainly not a waste of time; he has his breakthrough in his therapist’s office. But yeah, I agree, that’s generally the exception. Another portrayal worth discussing, since OCD was brought up: the new detective show _Monk._ It treads a very fine line between bathos and offensive lightheartedness; the main character (played wonderfully by Tony Shalhoub) is partly handicapped by his need to keep everything in order, but it’s this very obsession with detail that makes him such an effective sleuth. Most of the time, the show manages to play his disorder for gentle humor without ever making a mockery of the character. It’s quite a trick. ---
**Author:** ![TeaRoses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@TeaRoses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaRoses)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/22 "2003-07-29T17:02:33Z")
\*\* Cervaise \*\*, that’s a very good point, I did forget Ordinary People, and it was a big exceptioin. > [@](#): > > Hutton is in therapy (doctor played by Judd Hirsch) trying to cope with the loss, and makes real progress. It could be argued that his healing has more to do with a romance he tentatively strikes up Actually to give them credit I felt that initiating the romance was something he was able to do because of his progress. Which was a good thing, as I think the portrayal of a good relationship being able to save someone from mental illness is a just plain dangerous idea. And I still remember the scene where the coach asks him in front of the team if he had electroshock therapy while he was hospitalized. When I complained about therapy in media one of the things I was thinking of were The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, where some progress is made but then the (straight female) therapist makes a sudden confession that she has fallen in love with Molly and will have to end therapy. I suppose it could happen in real life but it just came out of the blue in the show and made it look like therapy is a dangerous prospect. Also the Bob Newhart show. I know, it was supposed to be a comedy and wasn’t really about psychiatry but for years I thought that therapy groups were all about whiny twits with vague social problems sniping at each other endlessly. I haven’t seen Monk, and another show that I (and I alone apparently) haven’t seen is the Sopranos. Anyone have any comments about the depiction of therapy there? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/23 "2003-07-29T17:18:08Z")
Keep in mind that many of us who have been exposed to psychiatric treatment _have_ found it to be somewhere between “stupid and ineffective” and “sadistic and permanently destructive”. The inaccurate image that I think many people have of mental illness and treatment is that mental patients lay down on couches and talk while the psychiatrist strokes a beard and interprets the patients’ dreams and recollections of potty training and motivations in terms of Freudian meanings. Unless you specifically seek it out, you aren’t likely to get psychoanalysis if/when you obtain the services of a psychiatrist voluntarily, and most assuredly not when psychiatric treatment gets imposed on you. & Yeah, the “whiny people in group therapy” thing bugs me too. In the involuntary setting, at least, there either isn’t any (the downscale version), or it’s a mindfuck session where the group therapy person selects someone and directs the others to chew them up and make it appear that administrative discipline is the will of one’s peers and that one brought it upon one’s self (the expensive behavior-mod bins). ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/24 "2003-07-29T17:26:05Z")
This isn’t a movie, but Sally Field’s performance in ER was, in my opinion, excellent. My natural mother is bi-polar, and Sally Field acted just like her. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/25 "2003-07-29T19:18:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > **Yeah, the “whiny people in group therapy” thing bugs me too.** I know this thread is seeking _positive_ examples, but I can’t resist going the other direction for a moment, just because it’s so egregiously bad, and because **AHunter3** reminded me of it. The _absolute worst_ depiction of group therapy I’ve ever seen is in the Bruce Willis stinker _Color of Night._ It’s a pretty bad movie in general, but the group therapy sessions go beyond laughable into bloody-mindedly offensive. The scenes with the patients, in which they flail around, insult each other, and break shit in the room while the therapist serenely observes, are stunningly, stunningly idiotic. It starts off being kind of funny, but before long it just pisses you off. Oh, and if you get the unrated version, you get to see Bruce Willis’s ding-dong. W00t. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/26 "2003-07-30T04:44:51Z")
Oh man, that Bruce Willis movie truly sucked big moose dick. Didn’t one of his patients at the beginning jump out a window during a session? Yeesh. Here’s the thing about therapy. In general, psychiatrists treat the patient as a guinea pig for a merry-go-round of meds. They often will prescribe their personal favorite – the one they’ve had the most success with – the very first session. Often they’ll send the person home from the first session with a prescription _and a sample pack_ so they can get started right away. Every two months you will be switched to a different medication until you say you are feeling better. Most of these medications will have noticably unpleasant side effects. If you are feeling worse and worse, and are candid, you run the risk of being involuntarily committed. The average therapy continues for years; sometimes decades. (I believe I read 3 years was the average.) Psychologists, on the other hand, may be quite helpful. They cannot medication or commit you. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/27 "2003-07-31T00:08:36Z")
Speaking of Jim Carrey…I noticed that there’s a section in _The Truman Show_… [spoiler]…where Truman’s driving down a main street in his “town,” and his car radio starts picking up the walkie-talkie traffic of whoever was reporting Truman’s actions (“He’s turning right on main…jeez, he nearly hit that woman! Oh crap, he can HEAR us!”) to help coordinate the actions of the other “extras” in town. As I recall, hearing “voices” that _keep a running commentary on your actions_ is one of the tell-tale symptoms of Schizophrenia. [/spoiler] Maybe it was a coincidence that the filmmakers put that in there, or maybe someone thought it was just an interesting “element” to squeeze into the plot. Who knows…I just hope I wasn’t the only one who saw it. 😃 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/28 "2003-07-31T04:49:08Z")
My one and only experience with group therapy was when my then bf now husband was involuntarily committed to a rehab for head injuries in Denver. Oh sure, they _make_ you sign a paper saying your voluntarily going there, but since half of the people entering are still disoriented voluntary isn’t even existant. My bf got on the plane CRYING for fuck’s sake that he wanted to stay with me. If I had known more about the laws of guardianship he wouldn’t have got on that plane. We got lucky tho… his insurance company flew me over there for 5 weeks to stay with him. Anyway, I would character group therapy as a whine fest based on that experience. Or a “my symptoms are worse than yours” one up session. I have a very bad view of therapists of all sorts in part due to his accident. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/29 "2003-07-31T04:52:58Z")
Sorry about the hijack… Its been one of those weeks. My photo professor once said his mother was in a mental hospital back in the 60s. He said that she told him _One Flew OVer the Cuckoo’s Nest_ was disturbingly realistic to her. ---
**Author:** ![IUHomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90db22/32.png) [@IUHomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IUHomer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/30 "2003-07-31T05:03:11Z")
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably an accurate portrayal of how mental illness USED to be treated. However, the over the top portrayal of ECT (“shock therapy”) is a completely irresponsible piece of Hollywood cliche, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/31 "2003-07-31T05:20:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IUHomer \* > \*\*One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably an accurate portrayal of how mental illness USED to be treated. \*\* My apologies. That is what I meant to say. My tired mind is not finishing its thoughts tonight. Thankl You **IUHomer** for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/32 "2003-07-31T13:21:35Z")
, ## [QUOTE] Originally posted by IUHomer One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably an accurate portrayal of how mental illness USED to be treated. The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, wrote the book while moonlighting as an orderly in a state mental hospital. His ideas were taken from what he had actually seen plus, of course, a little artistic license. I think in that movie, that the portrayal of actual mental illnesses isn’t the issue, the point was showing what that kind of environment does to the mentally ill (and those that may not have actually been metally ill upon committment) The less than stellar environment or state run hospitals, at the time, was not conducive to recovery at all. In fact, it more than likely was the cause of further pathos. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/33 "2003-07-31T21:24:20Z")
**IUHomer** : > [@](#): > > One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably an accurate portrayal of how mental illness USED to be treated. However, the over the top portrayal of ECT (“shock therapy”) is a completely irresponsible piece of Hollywood cliche, in my opinion. 😕 Are you saying that when they electroshock people against their will nowadays the _results_ are different? What is it that you think is different? In fact, you make it sound like the portrayal was inaccurate for the timeframe as well as for now. What aspects of the electroshocking sequence in the movie did you find “over the top”? ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/34 "2003-08-01T13:01:41Z")
I can’t believe nobody mentioned these two old gems, both about disassociative (or multiple personality) disorder. [Three Faces of Eve](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0051077), starring Joanne Woodward. I was made to watch that in an Abnormal Psych class in college, as well as [Sybil](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0075296) – ER wasn’t the first time Sally Field played a character with a mental illness. The prof said that these movies were fairly accurate depictions of the disorder. Notably, Joanne Woodward was in both movies – she played the therapist in Sybil. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/35 "2003-08-01T16:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*Keep in mind that many of us who have been exposed to psychiatric treatment _have_ found it to be somewhere between “stupid and ineffective” and “sadistic and permanently destructive”. > \*\* Hell, plain old therapy can be this way. My wife and I went to marrige counseling and it was apparent from the beginning that this therapist had an agenda. She directed my wife to talk about how my abusiveness and alchohol consumption was runing our marrige. This was the FIRST 10 minutes of or FIRST visit! She never even asked my wife what the issues were, she just started right in with the “men are pigs” stuff. My wife didn’t even buy it, although it would have been easy to just go along and be the innocent wounded wife abused by the awful contemptible husband. We never went back and eventually worked everything out on our own. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/36 "2003-08-01T20:35:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ouisey \* > \*\*This isn’t a movie, but Sally Field’s performance in ER was, in my opinion, excellent. My natural mother is bi-polar, and Sally Field acted just like her. \*\* Although at times I thought she was definitely playing things a bit too broadly, there were several times where the interactions between her character and the daughter hit a bit too close to home (my mom is also bipolar). ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/37 "2003-08-01T21:42:04Z")
> [@](#): > > One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably an accurate portrayal of how mental illness USED to be treated. However, the over the top portrayal of ECT (“shock therapy”) is a completely irresponsible piece of Hollywood cliche, in my opinion. That movie also reinforced the idea that a lobotomy would leave the patient a human vegetable with a big scar on his forehead. (Normally they used to go in through the eye socket.) The movie _Session 9_ used an actual abandoned mental hospital, dating from the 19th century, as its main setting. Very spooky and authentic-looking. The extras on the DVD include a little history of treatment of mental illness in the U.S.; this particular institute pioneered compassionate treatment of the patients, then later became another state-run snake pit because of budget cuts and overcrowding. We don’t treat truly mentally ill people very well in this country. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/38 "2003-08-01T21:59:31Z")
My general sense is that electroshocking noncompliant patients (w/o consent) is a very common occurrence, and it’s pretty horrid; whereas lobotomozing uncooperative patients w/o consent is extremely rare. I’d like to say “it just isn’t done”, the very idea gives me cold shivers, but psychosurgery hasn’t entirely faded from the map and has its modern proponents. Still, we just don’t run into it in our activist investigations & whatnot, whereas ECT (including being used as portrayed in the movie) is something we run into fairly often. Google “Paul Henri Thomas”, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/39 "2003-08-01T23:55:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogzilla \* > \*\* [Sybil](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0075296) – ER wasn’t the first time Sally Field played a character with a mental illness. The prof said that these movies were fairly accurate depictions of the disorder. Notably, Joanne Woodward was in both movies – she played the therapist in Sybil. \*\* Wasn’t it revealed later that the real-life Sybil had been manipulated by her therapist and that her “MPD” was an expression of this manipulation? ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476/40 "2003-08-02T00:18:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*My general sense is that electroshocking noncompliant patients (w/o consent) is a very common occurrence, \*\* I thought it was illegal now? I could be wrong, but that’s what I heard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mental-illness-in-movies-spoilers-likely/191476.md?page=3)