Images of the mind: psychiatry in the commercial film

Abstract

There are many striking temporal and cultural parallels in the development of commercial films and psychiatry. The psychiatrist has been depicted in widely varying ways--as madman, as a powerful force for tinkering with the soul, and as a wonder worker who cures patients by uncovering a single traumatic event. The early years, in which psychiatric issues were often treated simplistically or sensationally, were followed by a "latency period". After the war there was a deluge of psychological films, which also began to deal with emerging social issues. Contemporary films tend to focus on madness as a metaphor or on the struggle of seemingly normal, successful people to find fulfillment. Psychiatry and film are "toys that have grown up together," along with the consumers of both.