Mental disorders in film  

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Many films have portrayed mental disorders or used them as backdrops for other themes. This is a list of some of those films, sorted by disorder, regardless of whether or not the disorder is portrayed accurately. Thus, though 50 First Dates presents a case of anterograde amnesia, the type depicted does not actually exist.

Similarly, dissociative identity disorder, formerly called "multiple identity disorder", is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders, with no clear consensus on diagnostic criteria or treatment. Most films purporting to represent dissociative identity disorder would not leave that impression.

Owing to the nature of drama, extreme and florid manifestations of any given disorder tend to prevail over the more subtle ones typical of the average case. For example, people with agoraphobia are generally portrayed in drama as recluses who never, or almost never, venture from their homes; in reality, this is rare and extreme, not typical of the agoraphobic population.

Contents

Amnesia

Anterograde amnesia

A person with anterograde amnesia is unable to form new memories.


Retrograde amnesia

"A much-used plot device, retrograde amnesia occurs when a person forgets part or all of his or her past."


Psychogenic amnesia

"Psychogenic amnesia, also known as dissociative amnesia, is memory loss caused by psychological stress."

Lacunar amnesia

Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about one specific event.

Avoidant personality disorder

The Peanuts Movie – 2015: character of Charlie Brown


Bipolar disorder

Conduct disorder

Delusional disorder; and psychotic disorder not otherwise specified


Dementia

Alzheimer's disease


Depression


Dysthymia

Dissociative identity disorder

Previously called "Multiple Personality Disorder."

Eating disorders


Factitious disorder

Folie à deux

"Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder in the ICD-10."

Histrionic personality disorder

*Thaniyavarthanam – 1987 


Hypersexuality


Paranoid personality disorder

Pedophilia


Personality disorder not otherwise specified


Pervasive developmental disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder


Sadism

Schizoaffective disorder

  • Shine – 1996
  • Side Effects – 2013 (NOTE: Film does not accurately portray schizoaffective disorder as a majority of those diagnosed are more prone to being swindled by scammers than perpetrating violence toward other people).
  • Love & Mercy – 2014

Schizoid personality disorder


Schizophrenia

Self-injury


Substance use disorder

"Drugs listed from most addictive, harmful or destructive to least (from most to least dangerous, based on a 2007 scientific research study."


Suicide

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Mental disorders in film" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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