List of mental disorders in film
This is a list of films which have portrayed mental disorders.
Inclusion in this list is based upon the disorder as it is portrayed in the canon of the film, and does not necessarily reflect the diagnosis or symptoms in the real world.
Antisocial personality disorder
(Antisocial Personality Disorder should also include psychopathy and sociopathy.)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is also known as ADHD.)
- Juno - 2007 - character of Juno MacGuff, played by Elliot Page[5]
Autism
(Autism is also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder and in the past has had a subtype called Aspergers Syndrome. The spectrum can overlap with Savant syndrome and Prosopagnosia.)
Borderline Personality Disorder
(Borderline Personality Disorder is also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder)
- Mommie Dearest - 1981 - character of Joan Crawford played by Faye Dunaway[8]
- Fatal Attraction - 1987 - character of Alex Forrest played by Glenn Close[9]
- Single White Female - 1992 - character of Hedra Carlson/Ellen Besch played by Jennifer Jason Leigh[10]
- The Crush (1993 film) - 1993 - character of Adrian Forrester played by Alicia Silverstone[11]
- Mad Love (1995 film) - 1995 - character of Casey Roberts played by Drew Barrymore[11]
- Girl, Interrupted - 1999 - character of Susanna Kaysen played by Winona Ryder[12]
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones - 2002 - character of Anakin Skywalker played by Hayden Christensen[13]
- Thirteen (2003 film) - 2003 - character of Evie played by Nikki Reed [14]
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 2004 - character of Clementine Kruczynski played by Kate Winslet [13]
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith - 2005 - character of Anakin Skywalker played by Hayden Christensen [13]
- Wreck-It Ralph - 2012 - character of Wreck-it Ralph played by John C. Reilly [13]
- Silver Linings Playbook - 2012 - character of Tiffany Maxwell played by Jennifer Lawrence[15]
- Welcome to Me - 2014 - character of Alice Klieg played by Kristen Wiig [16]
- Unreal (TV series) - 2015-2018 - character of Rachel Goldberg played by Shiri Appleby [17]
- Ralph Breaks the Internet - 2018 - character of Wreck-it Ralph played by John C. Reilly[13]
Conversion Disorder
(Conversion Disorder used to be referred to as Hysteria)
- Tommy (1975 film) - 1975 - character of Tommy played by Roger Daltrey[18]
Folie à deux
"Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder (F24) in the ICD-10."
Kleptomania
- Häxan[22]
Posttraumatic stress disorder
- Iron Man 3 – 2013 - character of Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. [23]
Schizoaffective disorder
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day - 1991 - character of Sarah Connor played by Linda Hamilton [24]
Schizophrenia
(Not to be confused with Dissociative Identity Disorder)
Stuttering
"Also known as Stammering or Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder."
- IT - 2017 - character of Bill Denbrough played by Jaeden Martell [29]
Substance use disorders
"Drugs listed from most addictive, harmful or destructive to least (from most to least dangerous, based on a 2007 scientific research study."[30]
- Colossal - 2016 - character of Gloria played by Anne Hathaway[31]
See also
- Mental illness in fiction
Notes
- "What About Bob: A Psychological Analysis". Prezi.com.
- "The Aviator Howard Hughes OCD And Bipolar Research Paper - 1673 Words by Paperdue". Paperdue.com.
- Lou Leminick. "Gyllenhaal stuns as a sociopathic TV cameraman in 'Nightcrawler'". New York Post.
- Jake Coyle. "Film Review: 'Invisible Man' is a cunning if empty remake". Washington Times.
- Gregory, B. and, Milazzo, M. (August 16, 2020). "Peculiar Picture Show: Juno: A Great Portrayal of ADHD, with Teen Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression". Peculiarpicture.show.
- Knights, Karl (December 17, 2018). "Rain Man made autistic people visible. But it also entrenched a myth | Karl Knights". The Guardian.
- Autism and Representation edited by Mark Osteen, Autism in Film by Baker
- Gregory, B. and, Milazzo, M. (August 16, 2020). "Peculiar Picture Show: F*ck You, Christina". Peculiarpicture.show.
- Jonny Van Luven. "Analysis of the Portrayal of Borderline Personality Disorder in Fatal Attraction" (PDF). Loyola Marymount University. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- "Three BPD sufferers break the myths around borderline personality disorder". April 5, 2018.
- Lisabeth Ann Bylina (2012). "A CINEMA OF FATAL ATTRACTIONS : VIEWING GENRE THROUGH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER" (PDF). Colorado State University. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- "Everything You Forgot About Girl, Interrupted and Why the Story Remains So Vital". E! Online. 21 December 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- "10 Movies That Got Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms (Mostly) Right". The Mighty.
- "Borderline Personality Disorder in the Movies". Psychology Today.
- Glenn Sullivan. "The Psychopathology of 'Silver Linings Playbook'". Psychology Today.
- Scott, A. O. (April 30, 2015). "Review: Kristen Wiig as a Troubled Lottery Winner in 'Welcome to Me'". Nytimes.com.
- "6 TV Shows That Got Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms (Mostly) Right". The Mighty.
- "PsyArt: An Online Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts". Psyartjournal.com.
- The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries by Nancy Butcher
- Evelyn B. Kelly (2015). The 101 Most Unusual Diseases and Disorders. ABC-CLIO. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-1-61069-676-0.
- "Skeptical Cinema: 'Bug' and folie à deux". CFI Center for Inquiry. 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
- "Cahiers du Coco: Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
- "Portrayal of PTSD: Tony Stark in Iron Man 3". Time To Change. June 27, 2013.
- Footrin, Ralph (1991). "Terminator 2, Judgment Day" (PDF). Psychiatric Bulletin. 15 (12): 796–797. doi:10.1192/pb.15.12.796.
- "Mental health check for Lord of the Rings character". UCL News. December 17, 2004.
- Francine R. Goldberg (2013). Schizophrenia: A Case Study of the Movie a Beautiful Mind – Second Edition. eBookIt. ISBN 978-1-934107-12-6.
- Gregory, B. and, Milazzo, M. (August 16, 2020). "Peculiar Picture Show: Donnie Darko: We Still Don't Really Know What It's About". Peculiarpicture.show.
- Crepaz-Keay, David (March 27, 2015). "Why is schizophrenia portrayed so negatively on screen?". The Guardian.
- Rubin, Rebecca (September 20, 2017). "'It' Star Jaeden Lieberher on Deleted Scene, Sequel Plans and Perfecting His Stutter". Variety.
- Nutt, D; King LA; Saulsbury W; Blakemore C (24 March 2007). "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse". The Lancet. 369 (9566): 1047–53. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4. PMID 17382831. S2CID 5903121.
- Gregory, B. and, Milazzo, M. (August 16, 2020). "Peculiar Picture Show: Huge on Addiction, Abuse, and Other Metaphors". Peculiarpicture.show.
References
- Danny Wedding, Mary Ann Boyd and Ryan M. Niemiec, Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology, 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA, Hogrefe & Hufer Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-88937-292-6. Movies and Mental Illness – Hogrefe Publishing
- David J. Robinson, Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions, Rapid Psychler Press, 2003, ISBN 1-894328-07-8.
- Glen O. Gabbard and Krin Gabbard, Psychiatry and the Cinema, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2nd ed., 1999, ISBN 0-88048-964-2.
- Otto F. Wahl, Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness, Piscataway, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8135-2213-7.