Throughout History of Cinema, various themes can be distinguished for emerging and shaping it, resulting in today’s concept of it. In fact, both the interior/psychological world of mankind and some mental illnesses frequently portrayed in Cinema sparked curiosity in filmmakers, leading to its intensive approach.
Nevertheless, while some movies present mental illnesses in a realistic way, such as Bicho de Sete Cabeças (2000) – a Brazilian movie named after an expression equivalent to “rocket science” when referring to complicating something simple –, other present them in a fictional way, such as A Beautiful Mind (2001). In this sense, I’ll only write about the first way to answer the starting question:
“Could movies that portray mental illnesses help or contribute to its psychiatric treatment?”
To put it another way, this article aims to determine if movies could really contribute to improving mental health treatment’s results and how would its influence and contribution work. Before analysing any relation between Cinema and mental illnesses, it’s essential to understand each concept individually.
Cinema
Each stage of life we go through is way different from each other. However, “some things never change”. In fact, there is something in common to every generation, something that approaches them and makes them human. Cognitive skills, from dreams, fantasies and even from fetishes, they are present in the conscious and everyday life. It’s linked to the necessity to imagine, I mean, the necessity to run away from reality. In this context, Cinema plays a fundamental role.
It came to make impossible dreams come true in “real life”. In a certain way, it occupied the emptiness in each person. Either the admiration for characters or how relatable they are, these factors among innumerable others lead people to Cinema.
If Cinema moves us with its narratives, would it be capable of helping us? According to Ângelo Moscariello in Como Ver Um Filme (1985), meaning “how to watch a movie”: “Doesn’t exist a sector of human activity to which a movie can’t apply. They resort to film language to illustrate or study. From Sports to Psychology, (…) the fields where Film can be applied are truly infinite”. In fact, this capacity of creating and expressing senses, feelings and points of view has allowed this artistic expression to influence past, current and future generations.
Mental Health
Psychiatric diseases consist of symptoms and signs of abnormal behaviour in a person. Generally speaking, Cinema can help one with this type of illness, depending on two fundamental aspects, namely the movie’s theme or type and the patient’s disease. Therefore, to a depressed person should be shown and analysed a movie portraying similar symptoms. Obviously, Cinema unfortunately can’t contribute to the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. However not directly helping its treatment, can help the patient’s family showing how to act and care for their relative.
Just like a literary work can influence its reader’s behaviour, such influence can be perceptible from Cinema onto its viewers. This is the context in which appears the concept of Werther effect, which originates from Goethe’s book (1774). It’s reported that Werther’s suicide at the end of the story triggered the readers to copy the character, ending up killing themselves the same way and leaving the book openned on the pages that describe it. The literary work was controversial to the point of being banned in various European countries at the time. If such art piece lead to the mentioned effect, it can also happen nowadays with a movie on the same topic: Last Days (2005), a movie that fictionalises the last days of Nirvana’s vocalist, Kurt Cobain. Presuming that Cinema can induce a person to commit such an act, on the other hand, it can also help them to overcome barriers, turning into a good resource for the patient.
