Guide to PsycHollywood

This post exists for new readers, to explain why I created this blog, why they should read it, and how to read it.

Purpose

I started this blog purely for fun, because I love movies and thought it would be an interesting intellectual exercise to examine accuracy in movies. However, reasons this blog might be useful to various readers.

A) For someone that either has a disorder, or has a friend or family member that has a disorder, it may be difficult to get their head around their situation. Movies provide the opportunity to see how other individuals deal with their disorders, and since there are so many movies out there, it's good to have a source to distinguish the reputable movies from the garbage and the good performances from the bad.

B) For those interested in psychology, as a hobby or a profession, movies provide a way to fully understand the disorders that you read about. Sure, you can read about all the criteria a psychologist would need to diagnose a patient, but seeing a person actually deal with a disorder is a completely different and necessary experience.

How to Read this Blog

Subject: The character (and actor) that have the mental disorder.

Diagnosis: The Mental Disorder

Emphasis: How important is the mental disorder to the movie?

Focal Point = The whole movie is centered around the mental disorder

Main character = One of the main characters has the mental disorder, however the plot does not focus on it.

Minor character = This character is not central to the plot and is a small force in the small, acting in only a few scenes

Explicit/Implied Mental Disorder: Does the film make an attempt to diagnose the individual?

Explicit: The character is either self-aware or a character has mentioned the disorder.

Implicit: There is enough evidence to diagnose the individual, even though no character has mentioned the disorder.

Accuracy

I will only focus on the objective accuracy of a particular actor's performance as an individual who deals with a mental disorder.

Criticism

This is where I share my opinion of both the quality of the movie and how well it depicted the mental disorder.

Closing Comments

I would like to close this post by saying that I am not perfect, and individuals may disagree on objective (hopefully not) or subjective (probably) points I make about mental disorders in film. If you do, please send me an email at ZSmith890@gmail.com, I'd be happy to hear any criticism you have of my commentary. Thanks :)

Restrepo (2010)

Diagnosis: PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Criticism

This is a different type of post, because obviously I can't judge the authenticity of mental illness in this documentary about soldiers in the War in Afghanistan. I'll keep this post short too, just to express my indignation with how death is treated in the battlefield. A commander in the army telling his troops to "mourn and get over it" is not an acceptable way to deal with the deaths that these soldier's experience during their tours.

Yes, I understand that they're soldiers, and tough love may work for some people. But grief cannot be concealed with machismo. These soldier's either need access to trained professionals or commanders need to be trained by trained professionals on how to deal with these scenarios that occur so frequently in war.

It's not terribly surprising that so many soldier's return with PTSD with such poor training on emotional-coping techniques and understanding of the psychological impact of constant warfare.