Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions

Abstract

Reviews the book, 'Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions,' by David J. Robinson (see record [rid]2003-88168-000[/rid]). This book will be most useful for teachers of entry-level mental health providers or college-level psychopathologycourse students. There are many references to mental health organizations concerned with general psychiatric conditions, as well as specific diagnoses, and there resources are given. The film discussions are limited-pertinent plot elements and depictions of the particular psychopathologic phenomena are discussed in each section. Unfortunately, the book does not give specific references on how to order films, saying only that films are available via rental or online. In fairness, the author lists his disclaimers, i.e., that the book is not sufficient to make the reader a competent diagnostician, that he presents a 'reasonable but not exhaustive survey of films,' that he has not been able to find film portrayals for every diagnosis, etc. In summary, this is a useful addition to the teaching literature for DSM-IV-TR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)