Mental Illness and the Movies

Catalog description

This course serves as an introduction to the integration of psychology and film analysis, with a focus upon mental health. PSYCH 175N / COMM 175N seeks to help students understand the extent to which cinema can influence our perceptions of mental illness, and how the experience of mental illness can influence cinema. Students will be guided to critically analyze and discover how cinema can build or break the stigma and stereotypes regarding various types of mental illnesses and their treatments. The course is designed to familiarize students with various mental disorders (e.g., autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and dementia), aspects of their treatment (e.g., psychotherapy, medication, and ECT), and the creative ways in which filmmakers can choose to portray mental illness and its treatment (e.g., camera angles, lighting, music, costuming, casting, editing, method acting, and marketing) across cinema formats (e.g., in feature, independent, and documentary films). Students will be guided to consider how the cinema has shaped their own perceptions of mental illness, and how they could guide a filmmaker to generate a creative, compelling, and accurate portrayal of various types of mental illness and their treatments. PSYCH 175N / COMM 175N emphasizes integrative thinking, and seeks to help students develop critical reading, viewing, and thinking skills. The course incorporates lectures and assigned readings with the viewing of feature films during a weekly practicum period. Most lectures incorporate case examples and video clips to help students exercise their critical thinking skills. Introductory lectures provide a critical social and historical context for each week's film screening. Follow-up lectures and discussions offer critical and integrative analysis. Course assessment includes both objective measures and essay exams. PSYCH 175N / COMM 175N is an Interdomain General Education course that incorporates student learning criteria from both the arts (GA) and the social sciences (GS). It assumes to prior exposure to psychology or to film studies. As such, the course is designed to have broad accessibility, primarily for introductory level students.