The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

After a border patrol agent kills Mel by mistake, Pete sets out to honor his friend's request that he return his body to a small Mexican town. Pete tends the body with extraordinary affection during the trip.

~0:20 In a brief scene (or 2?) man and woman confront Male Erectile Disorder.

1:10 An old blind man living in the wild begs Pete to kill him because he is convinced his son, whose monthly visits stopped 6 months ago, will not return, and because he does not want to "offend God" by killing himself.

bereavement | Male Erectile Disorder | suicide

L'enfant

Bruno seems to care little for his new baby. He seems unable to empathize with the baby's mother. He seems unable to appreciate the future consequences of his choices, or maybe he just doesn't care. But he seems to come through in the end. Is this consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder or some other diagnosis?

Antisocial Personality Disorder | Personality Disorder

Rolling

This docudrama, which takes its name from the slang term for using  3, 4 methylene dioxymethamphetamine, also known as Ecstasy or MDMA, consists of documentary-like interviews of the characters alternating with dramatization of various aspects of the culture surrounding use of the drug in Los Angeles. Extended scenes depict use and intoxication during a rave (0:50). One set of interviews elicits logs of use over long periods of time. Most characters use the drug orally, but one scene (0:47) depicts rectal administration.

Should we classify this drug as a psycho-stimulant or hallucinogen? Was the presentation accurately balanced with regard to negative vs. positive aspects of use? During multiple scenes users acknowledge danger associated with purchasing the drug from unknown sources, and that even pills obtained from trusted sources may be contaminated.

Depiction of intoxication with the drug occurs repeatedly: 0:01, 0:21, 0:24 (User appears distracted with loose association.), 0:21, 0:49 (while driving)

Dealing: 0:07 (with so much slang we need -- and get -- subtitles), 0:18

Adverse effects: 0:03 (implied appetite suppression), 0:28 (depression), 0:40 (addiction), 1:18 (Are some relationships based completely in shared use of the drug?), 1:30 (death from "OD" after use of unknown drug)

Use of other drugs: 0:29 and 0:33 (smoking crack pipe?); 1:19 ("cat tranquilizer": ketamine or PCP?) and (snorting unidentified powder through straws); ~1:20 (cutting lines of powder on mirror with a credit card); 1:23 (smoking a joint)

Discussion of possible positive effects: 0:55   |

3, 4 methylene dioxymethamphetamine | Amphetamine Intoxication | drug | drug abuse | Hallucinogen Intoxication

Hobson's Choice

Hobson's heavy drinking and alcohol intoxication, threatened by signs of emergence of the temperance movement, play a prominent role in the plot until he awakens one morning (1:28) to a buzzing sound. When he opens his eyes he hallucinates swarms of mosquito-like insects, then a giant rat. Since there is no other sign of delirium Substance-Induced Psychotic Disorder fits. During a house call (1:31) his physician elicits tremors which do not seem to quite consistent with asterixis (liver flap) and diagnoses chronic alcoholism.

alcohol intoxication | alcohol withdrawal | chronic alcoholism | hallucination | heavy drinking | Substance-Induced Psychotic Disorder | temperance

Jules and Jim

Jules tells Jim how Catherine has procured a revolver and talked about killing herself (1:32), but near the end she impulsively invites Jim into her car, then drives off the end of a bridge, killing them both (1:43), apparently because she cannot have Jim as she wishes.

suicide

Un Air de Famille

Henri, the oldest, Mom's problem child and most like Dad, has taken over the family business, a small restaurant, but learns that his wife does not plan to come home, even for the weekly family dinner. Philippe, the middle child, and Mom's hero, made a television appearance earlier in the day. Betty, the youngest, a disappointment to Mom like Henri, has tentatively involved herself with Denis who works at the restaurant, supports Henri emotionally, and, along with Philippe's wife Yolande provides the family a lifeline out of dysfunction.

Who would be the identified patient if someone sought treatment? Is Henri the family scapegoat? How well do the adult children fit typical birth order expectations? What role does triangulation play in the emotional process of the family? How might Dad have become so distant from the entire family in the primary parental triangle? With Betty moving toward Denis, and Henri, with help from Denis, repairing his marriage, will the fusion between Mom and Philippe lead to crisis? Can this family be conceptualized as Bowen's undifferentiated family ego mass?

emotional process | family constellation | fusion

Disfigured

Could a woman with anorexia nervosa get an obese woman to lose weight? Could an obese woman get a woman with anorexia nervosa to gain weight. This film reveals the complexity of the barriers and the personal clashes with self image and cultural expectations.

An unlikely friendship develops when Darcy, a woman with anorexia nervosa, tries unsuccessfully to join a support (?) group for overweight women (0:06) because to herself she looks overweight, leading her to frustrated attempts to lend her experience in weight loss strategies to an obese woman, Lydia, ("I want anorexia lessons." 0:40) who attempts to return the favor by helping her slender friend gain weight.

Darcy reveals elements of her anorexia when she admits to starving herself (0:09) and exams her body in a mirror (0:21). Tension develops when her parents ask her about eating and dating (0:26) and whether she is "seeing" Dr. S. We see her purging or spitting out food in a bathroom alone (028).

Darcy argues that she, unlike Lydia, is sick ("I have an eating disorder" 0:41) as evidenced by treatment by "four therapists in twelve years." She seems more inclined toward seeking professional help again as the story unfolds, talking about psychotherapy (1:11) and calling Dr. S (1:17, 1:28). Just how much do these two eating problems have in common?

Irony abounds: An overweight man admits to Lydia that he wants bariatric surgery but later admits he wants to gain a few pounds in order to qualify.

The two women admit their desperation as they hint at thoughts of suicide and even homicide (1:07).

anorexia nervosa | eating disorder | obesity | suicide

Orange County

A few scenes illustrate intoxication with, presumably, cannabis and one or two other drugs, possibly ecstasy (0:48-0:51). Vague references to other drugs.

drugs | intoxication

Nurse Betty

Betty deserves a lot better than her conniving husband Del, but when she witnesses his brutal murder by father and son hit men (echoes of Panic which was also released in 2000) she dissociates (~0:24), acting as though she is leaving her husband to travel to LA to reunite with her ex-fiance, a character in her favorite soap opera. I agree with Dr. Robinson's (Reel Psychiatry. See sidebar.) diagnosis of Dissociative Amnesia, but not necessarily with his diagnosis of subsequent Dissociative Fugue. She does meet DSMIV-TR criteria A-C, but she shows no sign of distress or impaired functioning related to her symptoms. In fact she surpasses her former level of occupational functioning to the extent that a hospital hires her as a nurse despite her lack of credentials. Furthermore, Betty is on a mission: She is stalking the man (or rather the character played by him) she believes loves her which suggests erotomania or de Clerambault's syndrome.

Is such purpose in the fugue itself consistent with Dissociative Fugue?

She recovers fully without treatment when confronted with the truth. But does Dissociative Fugue or erotomania resolve with confrontation as portrayed here? My sense of erotomania is that it does not.

In the end the elder hit man, to avoid being captured alive, or because Betty does not return his affection, retreats with a pistol to a bathroom where the sound of a single gunshot suggests his suicide.

de Clerambault's syndrome | dissociation | Dissociative Amnesia | Dissociative Fugue | erotomania | stalking | suicide

The Gambler

Starting around 0:23 Brady Hawkes provides a summary of what he has known gamblers to risk losing, as well as what they might do after losing it, but you will not find pathological gambling in the plot.

Pathological Gambling | suicide

Finding Amanda

Spoiler Alert!

Taylor's apparent return to gambling starts at the races where he denies what he is doing, but there is little evidence he was every in recovery. We hear his psychotherapist, Dr. Chase, (0:05) before we leave the races, then see part of a session in his office, but he does not get through to Taylor, and soon he's back at the track.

When Taylor tells his wife he will go to Vegas to rescue niece Amanda and take her to "rehab" it seems clear that he really intends to gamble (0:12).

~0:16 Is Taylor making amends? I doubt it.

0:22 The horses again. When he passes up a drink, is he trying to convince himself that he has not relapsed?

0:35 Amanda buys unspecified drug from a dealer, then we learn these folks consider mere marijuana to be passe. Taylor buys some, but disparages its quality.

0:39 Amanda, implying that life without alcohol is not worth living, asks Taylor, "Why don't you just kill yourself?"

0:42 Taylor tries to convince Amanda to go to rehab, but she confronts him about his alcohol and gambling problems. Amanda talks about using ecstasy. Taylor tells her, "I'm not an addict." She gives Taylor a pill as a test of his ability to refrain from using it.

0:46 Taylor gambles, loses, orders a drink then lies to Amanda about drinking.

1:00 Taylor takes the ecstasy, gets intoxicated, drinks, talks about rehab.

1:03 Taylor says he would "rather kill myself" than be a prostitute.

1:05 Amanda talks about how badly she feels about herself.

1:07 Taylor awakens after a blackout. He has no recall of winning or of where he hid the money.

1:10 Too late, Taylor promises his wife he will stop gambling.

1:20 Amanda says she would  "kill myself" to avoid rehab, and indeed tries unsuccessfully to exit Taylor's car at speed.

1:25 Taylor drops Amanda at rehab, but she leaves, and Taylor admits himself in her place. Has he finally hit bottom?

alcoholism | blackout | denial | ecstasy | intoxication | Pathological Gambling | psychotherapist | psychotherapy | rehabilitation | relapse | suicide

Italian for Beginners

Almost everyone in this film loses or has lost a significant other. Karen helps her mom along by turning up the morphine drip (0:36). Andreas' wife, we learn, suffered from schizophrenia. Might she have killed herself? Hal-Finn is not the only one with personality problems. One character suggests Olympia's clumsiness and dysgraphia (?) might have resulted from her mother's drinking before Olympia's birth. Is that common with  fetal alcohol effect? Jørgen Mortensen's impotence figures in his relationships with his male confidants as well as with Giulia.

bereavement | dysgraphia | fetal alcohol effect | male erectile disorder | morphine

What's Love Got To Do With It?

The story of Tina Turner. In a couple of very brief scenes we see Ike Turner snorting what is presumably cocaine. In several scenes he beats Tina. Toward the end she begins to fight back.

0:29 Lorraine shoots herself off camera in an apparent suicide attempt, but recovers.

1:22 Tina appears to have overdosed with an unidentified prescription drug. An ambulance takes her to hospital. It is not clear whether she intended to kill herself.

physical abuse | suicide

Unfaithfully Yours

Sir Alfred, in a fantasy while conducting his orchestra, uses a revolver to shoot himself in the head while playing Russian roulette because he believes his wife has been unfaithful. Is that suicide or just bad luck? Anyway, it was only a fantasy.

suicide

Pure

10 year old Paul takes on a parent role for his "junky" mother after his father's death. A family friend, Lenny, supplies the heroin, often referred to as "gear."

0:02 Paul cooks heroin for his mother Mel, prepares the syringe, and awakens her to find she forgot his birthday.
0:08 A bully tells Paul his mom is a junky.
0:12 Vicki smokes heroin in a pipe. Not knowing what just transpired between Paul and the bully she harshly defines the term junky.
0:14 Back home Paul finds someone has beaten his mother.
0:17 A woman at the butcher shop talks about Paul's father's death and how Mel, a junky, needs to stop using.
0:18 Paul walks in on Mel injecting Vicki's neck (jugular?). Overdosed, she is carried away.
0:20 Paul finds Vicki dead.
0:22 Paul finds Mel high.
0:24 Out of control, hitting Mel, Paul confronts her about her heroin use and her lies.
0:26 Mel tells Paul she will quit, but that it will not be easy.
0:29 Mel, back home, prepares to withdraw. She prepares Paul she will act "wierd" and warns him not to do what she will tell him.
0:32 Paul has locked Mel in her room.
0:34 Lenny delivers heroin to the home. Paul finds and keeps it.
0:35 In severe withdrawal Mel begs Paul to let her out.
0:40 While Paul was away Lenny got to Mel, injected her, she nods.
0:55 Pauls older friend Louise smokes heroin while pregnant with Lenny's child. She talks about the drug's effect, referring to it as bag(?) or brown(?).
0:48 Paul acknowledges that Mel is a junky.
1:03 Paul calls Mel a dirty junky. He takes his heroin to Louise who helps him smoke it. Intoxicated, he vomits. Mel finds him, goes berserk.
1:07 Paul, intoxicated, wanders as if in a dream.
1:10 Louise's baby is born addicted to heroin.
1:15 Mel tells Paul she has been using methadone in treatment for 3 weeks
1:19 Paul visits Mel who is sick, vomiting. She explains that she dropped her methadone so she must wait until tomorrow for her next dose. She wishes for a small dose of heroin to get her through.

addiction | bereavement | heroin | methadone | methadone maintenance | opioid intoxication | opioid withdrawal | overdose

The Ruling Class

Spoiler Alert!

Is this film a farce or camp or both or what?

We start (0:09) with a titled aristocrat, helped by his butler, donning a pink ballet tutu before he climbs a short step stool and proceeds to hang himself with a noose attached to the ceiling while waving a sword. We might have thought it was suicide until he rests on the stool before starting anew. Alas, he accidentally kicks the stool too far away, and the butler arrives too late to help. The anticipated autoerotic asphyxiation never happens.
0:23 Enter Jack, aka JC, aka God, a "paranoid schizophrenic" with the delusion he is Christ; bizarrely dressed psychiatric patients dot the grounds of a psychiatric hospital on a tour led by psychiatrist Dr. Herder. The doctor assures that Jack will not undergo lobotomy, but the patient demonstrates delusions of grandeur. Through much of the film he looks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, and spends leisure hours hanging from a cross attached to the living room wall.
0:25 Jack manifests thought disorder with loose association; hallucinated voices told him he was God.
0:48 A comely opera singer was not hallucinated, but was engaged by Jack's uncle in a plot over control of the estate.
0:59 neologisms
1:22 Administration of Rorschach ink blot test
1:33 We cannot tell whether the gorilla is hallucinated or staged like the second "God" engaged by Dr. Herder in hopes of removing Jack's delusions by confrontation. How could there be two Gods? It works.
1:38 No longer deluded. No longer JC. Jack acquires a tic suggestive of Tourette's
1:40 Dr. Herder identifies "palilalia;" Jack's uncle hopes to have Jack "certified insane"
2:17 Jack says Dr. Herder is paranoid, but now with an apparent delusion that he is Jack the Ripper he murders Claire, later Grace.
2:25 Dr. Herder and the hired "God" undergo simultaneous side by side ECT which produces wildly exaggerated "seizures"

delusion | delusions of grandeur | ECT | hallucination | loose association | neologism | paranoid schizophrenic | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | suicide | thought disorder | Tourette's Disorder