Mondo Cane 2

This documentary may disturb you.

0:07 Men dress as women in two scenes. In the first the men cross dress for entertainment. In the second we see male police officers disguise themselves as women in order to catch criminals.

0:30 A man throws tomatoes at a movie screen to vent his anger and frustration at heavy traffic and highway police.

0:30 As part of a religious ritual women manifest hysterical behavior, crying out and throwing themselves on the dirt floor where they writhe as others throw more dirt on them.

0:44 Live footage of a monk burning himself to death in protest in Vietnam.

1:02 We see a group of men jailed for forcing boys to wear devices that left them deformed so they might collect more money as beggars. We see the boys and some of the devices used.

1:19 At a wake the elderly widower caresses the embalmed corpse of his deceased wife which sits upright in a chair while others drink and shed tears. 

1:24 In a Sardinian town men run headlong into a steel rolling shutter. Some suffer obvious head injuries.

bereavement | catharsis | cross dressing | Dementia Due to Head Trauma | hysteria | Physical Abuse of Child | suicide

The Onion Field

A criminal accused of murdering a police officer ties up the criminal justice system for years while the police officer who survives the murder of his partner appears to suffer from PTSD, hoarding an enormous collection of unwanted items he has compulsively stolen until he himself is charged with theft. The story focuses attention on the failure of law enforcement agencies to recognize and provide help for such problems in employees.

hoarding | PTSD | repetition compulsion

Neverwas

Pay attention to the dates as you watch this film, and consider how we might have treated a patient in a psychiatric hospital at the time. We see psychiatric records dated in the '60's. Children's book author Thomas seems to have died in the 70's. His son Zach, a newly trained psychiatrist, returns to work at Millwood Psychiatric "Clinic" (0:04) in a pristine '60's or '70's BMW 2002. We see bottles of his father's prescription drugs, one for methaqualone (1:04), during flashbacks to Zach's childhood. During the here and now of the film we hear no reference to medication and only a single reference to ECT. The only treatment portraye is Psychotherapy, which mostly occurs in a group setting (0:09, 0:26), although Zach frequently meets alone with Gabriel (0:18, 0:31, 0:38, 0:52, 1:07). The only medication named, "Thorazine," appears in earlier hospital records.

Also pay attention to names: Zach seems to be Dr. Reilly (his mother's maiden name) in the film, but as a character in his father's book he was Zachary Small. The head psychiatrist at Millwood is Dr. Reid. Zach's father is Thomas Pearson. I had trouble keeping track of them.

I found Zach as psychiatrist refreshing. How many film psychiatrists encourage patients to address them by first name?  He relates to his patients without the usual overly serious demeanor or the typical "I know what's really going on in your head" attitude. But he almost ruins it for me when he tells his friend Maggie he is a "therapist." (0:13) Near the end he joins the patients in a crafts project in the day room (1:38)

Zach's mother, ironically, is played by Frances Farmer, OK, Jessica Lange, who played actress Frances Farmer in the film Frances, which told the story of actress Farmer's mental illness and psychiatric hospitalization.

Dr. Reid (William Hurt), too, has prior experience playing a role probably inspired by real life New York psychiatrist Richard Ariola in the film Altered States. His role more typifies the cinema psychiatrist.

Thomas seems to have suffered from Major Depressive Disorder: We see him as a tormented patient, probably at Millwood (0:08). As Zachary looks at his father's hospital records we see references to "manic depression... agoraphobia... Thorazine... suicidal tendency" (0:29). In a letter to his friend and fellow patient Gabriel he describes feeling that he is in a "black hole" where the outlook is "darker" (1:13).

Gabriel most likely suffers from schizophrenia, but with little evidence of thought disorder other than his delusional world of Neverwas of which he claims to be king. When Zach suggests to him (0:40) that Neverwas exists only as a book, Gabriel becomes agitated. In a psychotherapy session Gabriel dances around the room and recites a poem (0:27) which seems inappropriate to those present.

Zach seems to suffer from insomnia. We see him take unidentified pills while in bed (0:46). During a consultation Dr. Reid asks him how long it has been since he slept (0:42).

How might a narrative psychotherapist comment on this film? Thomas: "Sometimes the story finds the storyteller." (0:44)

Boundary questions arise in Zach's relationship with Gabriel. Dr. Reid forbids Zach to talk to Gabriel because of Zach's personal stake (1:00). Reid also confronts Zach, blaming him for Gabriel's "complete meltdown, barricaded himself in his room," after Zach left him with a copy of the book when he responded to the code alarm. Gabriel unlocks his door for Zach, but when Reid and orderlies follow he says, "You can torture me with your poison pills and your electric shock." (0:55)

Hospital scenes: A patient rocks back and forth in the hallway (0:07). Catatonic? A female patient in group becomes agitated with delusional talk and throws confetti (0:10).When patient Jake becomes agitated after a confrontation with a visitor a code alarm sounds to summon staff aid (0:53).  Zach talks with Jake in a quiet room (0:55). Zach consults with Dr. Reid regarding Gabriel's delusions (0:41). Dr. Reid refers to "transference". [This is not psychoanalysis.]

Spoiler Alert!

Two fantasies (at least) play out in this film: The patient's fantasy of rescue by the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist's fantasy of rescuing the patient. Gabriel recognizes Zach ("I know it's you." 0:16) and expects Zach to return to the hospital to rescue him as he believed Zach, as a child, rescued Thomas. Only after reading records and letters, some from the files and some provided by Gabriel, who has been mute prior to Zach's arrival (0:17) does Zach realize that his father based his wildly successful children's book on Gabriel's delusions (0:58). What's more, Gabriel has incorporated Zach into his delusions. Zachary even pulls from the hospital records and watches a film of an interview of Thomas (0:43).

As the story unfolds Zach decides that the only way he can help Gabriel, and to some degree himself, is by living the delusions with his patient (1:35). Along the way Zach discovers that places and things he always assumed to be fiction in the book actually exist in the forest near Millwood.

Zach's flashbacks suggest that he found his father who hanged himself (0:01,1:14), apparently soon after Zach took Thomas' medications from him, ran to his own room, and refused to open the door (0:47). Does he blame himself? (Thomas had told his son, "The pills make me happy." after Zachary sees him take some while sitting at his desk at home. (0:46)

We see Dr. Reid's American Psychiatric Association membership certificate hanging on the wall in his office. (It looks bigger than mine.)

bereavement | boundaries | chlorpromazine | delusion | depression | insomnia | group psychotherapy | Major Depressive Disorder | methaqualone | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | Schizophrenia | suicide

The Fisher King

After Parry witnesses the brutal, random and senseless killing of his wife he abandons his conventional way of life for the streets, periodically plagued by hallucinations of an evil knight on horseback. Could this be posttraumatic stress disorder or just the author's fantasy of a mental disorder?

bereavement | hallucination | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The Shop Around the Corner

After a private detective confirms that his wife has been unfaithful and that it was not with the employee he had suspected, Mr. Matuschek disappears into his office. The delivery boy, Pepi, returning to the shop, opens the door to the office, looks alarmed, yells at Matuschek to stop, and disappears into the office himself. A gunshot rings out, a glass fixture shatters, and Pepi places a pistol on a counter(0:49).

In what appears to be a hospital Pepi asks the the doctor about his boss's condition, suggesting he might have suffered a "nervous breakdown." The doctor, with a barrage of psychiatric jargon, labels his condition as an "acute epileptoid manifestation of a pan-phobic melancholia with some indication of a neurasthenia cordis."

suicide

G Force

Their trainer has convinced a group of highly trained special operations guinea pigs that their abilities stem from the fact that they were genetically engineered. They temporarily lose confidence when they discover the truth.

heterosuggestion

Far from the Madding Crowd

Bathsheba Everdene mourns the deaths of Fanny Robin and Sergeant Troy.

After Fanny Robin dies, apparently in childbirth with his baby, Sgt. Troy fakes suicide by drowning: After he leaves his clothes on the beach we see him swim far into the ocean (2:17). He turns up alive later performing in a traveling carnival.

bereavement | suicide

Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle addresses the conflict between faith and fact, fantasy and reality, and the labeling of behavior that we cannot understand as crazy (about Kris Kringle, as Santa, 0:21). Filmed against a very different back drop from The Snake Pit, filmed around the same time, Miracle almost equals Snake Pit in richness of commentary on popular attitudes toward psychiatry soon after World War II in the U.S.:

Dispute over the best way to raise a child: Doris to Mr. Gailey about her daughter Susan and fantasy causing "horrible mental conflict" (0:21); Susan parrots her mother's teaching to Kris: "see things that aren't really there" ... "imagination" (0:39)

Use of psychologists by employers: Mr. Sawyer (Macy's company psychologist) will examine Kris (0:29)

The notion that a psychologist/psychiatrist might be more disturbed than the patient: Kris turns the tables on the Mr. Sawyer, who reacts with anger (0:32)

Hints at notions of ability to predict potential violent behavior: Mr. Sawyer about Kris: "He may become violent," has "latent maniacal tendencies" (0:34)

Questioning the propriety of depriving an individual of liberty because of aberrant or unexplained behavior or ideas: Kris "should be in a mental institution"; Dr. Pierce (family physician from retirement home): Kris is "delusional" but harmless (0:34)

Misuse of positions of authority and psychological theory by psychiatrists or psychologists: Mr. Sawyer says Kris has a guilt complex which takes time to treat (0:51); Mr. Sawyer tricks Kris to get him to (the psychiatric ward at) Bellevue Hospital (0: 57)

Psychiatrists portrayed as superior to psychologists: Kris challenges Mr. Sawyer, implies a psychiatrist has more authority, "Are you a psychiatrist?...passing yourself off..." (0:53). Why might a psychologist be addressed as "Mr." instead of "Dr.?"

Emergence of casual use of psychiatric jargon in popular culture: talk about phobias, delusions, being maladjusted (0:53)

Notions of psychological determinants of behavior: Mr. Sawyer says about Kris, when he (Sawyer) "attacked his delusions he became violent" (0: 55)

Popular, and partly accurate, notions of a psychological examination portrayed as silly: Mr. Sawyer examining Kris, who already know the drill from prior experience (0:32); Even a lay person (Kris) knew how to skew the outcome of an examination, faking sick by having deliberately "answered questions incorrectly" (1:00)

Invocation of legal process to "certify" a patient for commitment: Dr. Rogers, presumably a psychiatrist at Bellevue, recommends Kris be committed (0:58); the certification form (1:02); reference to a "lunacy" hearing, (1:04); Gailey, as Kris' attorney threatens to file a writ of habeas corpus; the hearing before a judge (1:07-)

civil commitment | delusion | malingering | mental status examination | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | psychiatry | psychologist | psychology | writ of habeas corpus

Reefer Madness

This cult film exaggerates the adverse effects of marijuana use including blaming it for suicide.

cannabis | suicide

Half Nelson

If history teacher Dan's unlikely friendship with student Drey is to impact Dan's addiction to crack cocaine in a positive way we do not find out as the film ends. We do see the adverse effects on his life.

Preparation: White powder loaded into plastic bags (1:24).

Dealing: Dan meets another man, makes brief, cryptic references (0:08); Drey's older "friend" Frank initiates Drey in dealing (1:28, 1:30); Dan appears to give Drey cash for drugs (1:34)

Using: Dan smokes a crack pipe in the locker room (0:13); lines of powder snorted (0:46);  Dan snorting (058); Dan snorting in alley (1:03); Dan snorting (1:06); Dan smoking crack pipe (1:30); more crack pipes (1:33)

References to treatment: "tried rehab...didn't work" (0:46); Dan's friend "met him in the program" (0:40)

In a scene in the teachers' lounge another teacher tells Dan a crack vile was found in the locker room (0:27). Drey asks Dan,  "What's it like to smoke that stuff?" (0:56). Frank tells Drey her teacher is a "base head" (1:26)

addiction | cocaine

Meet John Doe

In what starts out as a publicity stunt John Doe plans to kill himself on Christmas eve by jumping from the roof of City Hall.

Why did Frank Capra feature Christmas eve suicide plans in at least two films (See It's a Wonderful Life.)?

suicide

It's a Wonderful Life

We first hear from the angels that George Bailey is thinking about "throwing away his life" ~0:03. We see George starting to jump into the icy river (1:39) on Christmas eve in despair over the apparent failure of his business. After he saves Clarence (or Clarence saves him) Clarence observces George is "still thinking of killing yourself."

We know the experience of seeing how the world might have turned out had George never been born has changed him when he says to Clarence, "Get me back!"

Two losses affect the story: George prevents Mr. Gower the pharmacist, who has just received a telegram that his son has died, from sending poison to a customer. George's father's death prevents him from leaving Bedford Falls.

1:52 Two more references to mental illness: George says to Clarence, "You're crazy" and "I must be seeing things."

Why did Frank Capra feature Christmas eve suicide plans in at least two films (See Meet John Doe.)?

bereavement | corrective emotional experience | suicide

Julie and Julia

 Suicide comes up twice in casual conversation: Eric suggests to Julie that her blog readers might "take poison" if she stops posting (~0:41). With her hand imitating a gun a character suggests that the husband of Irma Rombauer (author of Joy of Cooking) shot himself in the head (1:14).

suicide

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Sigmund Freud cures Sherlock Holmes of cocaine dependence. One scene attempts to represent the experience of hallucination of snakes.

cocaine | hallucination | Sigmund Freud

A Christmas Carol

Based on the book by Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

The ghosts of Christmas past, present and future: Visions or hallucinations? Whatever you call them the resulting corrective emotional experience works better than five years on the couch to help Scrooge get past bereavement and bitterness over rejection by his father and the loss of his sister and his betrothed.

bereavement | corrective emotional experience | hallucination

Remake: A Christmas Carol

Big Bad Love

Barlow is a divorced and usually drunk Vietnam vet and struggling writer. His best friend Monroe suffers a traumatic brain injury.

Barlow wakes up from a combat dream (0:54 "Corpsman!") but shows no other sign of PTSD.

Exhibitionism: reported at 0:07, comes up again in conversation at 0:28 and 0:37. Barlow and Monroe think they see the flasher in his truck, but the chase ends when their truck runs out of gas (0:58).

Most and best developed is Barlow's loss of a loved one.

Bereavement | Dementia Due to Head Trauma | Exhibitionism

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Challenges the myth that anabolic steroids cause suicide, brain tumors and other serious problems, while revealing the disagreement over the dangers among physicians, the hipocrasy in societal attitudes toward steroids and other types of drugs used for arguably similar purposes, and the exploitation of the issue by politicians. Reveals the fine line between treatment of illness and enhancement of performance as well as the pseudo-legitimate prescription for so-called hormone deficiencies. And takes a shot at the huge and largely unregulated supplement business.

The filmmaker begins with the story of how his and his own brothers' emulation of their heroes Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, said to have used anabolic steroids, led them into body building and ultimately use of the drugs themselves (0:10).

One brother becomes the professional wrestler Mad Dog, lists other drugs he used: pot, cocaine, ecstasy, and others (0:12), and describes trying to kill himself by overdosing and walking into a river (0:13)

Use of anabolic steroids by Olympic athletes: introduced (0:24); runner Carl Lewis tested positive for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine (0:55)

Notion of steroids as killer drugs: introduced (0:25); comparison to death caused by other drugs (0:27)

Other adverse effects: claims of personality change and violent rage (scenes with injection 0:32); suicide, hallucinations, paranoia, "'roid rage" in news (0:33); actual side effects listed (0:35); association with other risky behaviors (0:36);

Doctors talk about anabolic steroids: introduction and beneficial medical uses (0:26); compares exaggeration of adverse effects to those related to marijuana in the film Reefer Madness (0:28); side effects (0:31)

Didactic differentiating anabolic steroids from others (0:34)

Anabolic steroid control act passed in 1990 (0:38).

Story of Taylor Hooton who became depressed (1:03) and killed himself after a psychiatrist told him to stop using steroids and prescribed escitalopram (1:01). Doubt about the cause of his suicide (1:04)

Absence of criticism of use of other drugs for performance enhancement: human growth hormone (1:23); beta blockers for performance anxiety for musicians and other performers despite potential for competitive advantage; use of psychostimulants by students and fighter pilots (1:26)

Psychiatrist Harrison Pope talks about evolution of ideal body image of men with implications for steroid use (1:15)

anabolic steroid | escitalopram | psychiatrist | psychostimulants | suicide

Stardust Memories

When Dorrie admits she has stopped taking her lithium (presumably for a mental disorder that runs in her family (0:25)), Sandy urges her to continue the medication (0:10).

A psychoanalyst, referring to guilt, asserts that it would take years to achieve a cure (0:21).

A brace of hounds tracks down hostility represented by a Sasquatch (Bigfoot) like creature whose victims' bodies litter the ground. A man confronts him waving his only weapon, a pipe: "I'm a psychoanalyst. This is my pipe." (0:29)

A psychoanalyst recounts the analysis (1:13), saying Bates' inability to block out reality led to a condition he says he labels ozymandias melancholia in an article he has published in the "psychoanalytic journal."

lithium | psychoanalysis | psychoanalyst

Passengers

Spoiler Alert? Let me put it this way: I would have liked the film more if I had just stopped watching around 1:13. But no, I won't tell you how it ends.

After a passenger jet crashes (clearly a traumatic event) a psychotherapist, Claire, discusses her anticipated involvement in treating the survivors with Perry, a mysterious figure who appears from time to time throughout the film. There is a reference to her "PhD that never ends" (0:03), but we never know her credentials. She announces, "I'm a therapist. (0:05)"

Several scenes portray flashbacks or re-experiencing in nightmares: a burning engine seen through a window (0:08); Eric re-experiences the engine exploding (1:01).

We see several group psychotherapy sessions: Janice reports amnesia for the event (0:09), Shannon tells Claire she cannot understand the survivors' experience (0:21)

Professional boundaries: Claire and Eric agree from the start that he will not be her patient, but does that really get her off the ethical hook as their relationship becomes increasingly intimate despite her efforts to the contrary? Claire visits Eric at his home (0:13) where "repression of negative feelings" is mentioned (0:14). Despite their ageement Claire talks about reevaluating priorities and asks Eric to revisit the experience. She refers to professional boundaries (0:17). Eric gives Claire a key to his home (0:31). She talks about "ground rules" (0:32) and about professional ethics (0:35). Eric visits Claire's home (0:36). She kisses Eric (0:46). She admits to Perry (Who is he anyway?) that she crossed the line (0:54). Claire enters survivor Norman's home when he is not there (0:56)

Suggestion of a relationship between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and extra sensory perception: Eric seems, inexplicably, to know things about Claire (0:18)

Norman is accused of being paranoid (0:24).

Counter-phobic behavior: Eric stands at the edge of a roof in a scene reminiscent of Fearless
 (0:40). Claire appears acrophobic (0:41). Eric stands in front of traffic and a train (~1:05).

bereavement | boundaries | counterphobia | Dissociative Amnesia | flashbacks | group psychotherapy | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | psychotherapist | psychotherapy

The Dreamers

By triangulation can Matthew help emotionally fused twins Isabelle and Theo differentiate?

When Matthew asks Isabelle what she would do if her parents found out, she says, "I would kill myself." (1:02). When she finds a check (1:42) they have left while she, her brother, and Matthew were sleeping, and realizing that now her parents do know, she attempts to do just that by connecting a hose to a gas pipe which she brings into the improvised "tent" in which the young men still sleep. As she holds the gas to her face she recalls an old black and white film in which a woman rolls to the edge of the water. Failing on the first attempt, she rolls once more and disappears in the drink. (What film was this, maybe a silent one?) Before she can lose consciousness a brick crashes through the apartment window. As the young men awaken she hastily removes the tube and turns off the gas. They hear a demonstration in the street below.

The threesome shares a joint (1:12).

differentiation | fusion | joint | suicide | triangulation

Before Night Falls

The wife of a man coerced to confess to "crimes" against the Cuban revolution and to name others similarly involved jumps to her death from a balcony after she sees the event broadcast on television (0:48).

The film portrays at least one main character as bisexual.

At least one scene depicts cross-dressing; probably the best is at 1:12 (Johnny Depp).

bisexual | cross-dressing | suicide

Asylum

This film seems to play on a distortion of the notion of undoing the effects of childhood abuse by retrieving painful memories, but with a sadistic and violent psychiatrist whose favorite tools of treatment are stylized lobotomy picks. These horror lobotomies bear little resemblance to the real thing. Rather, the mad psychiatrist stabs fully conscious patients (victims) in both eyes.

String, a new student, reads from his computer that the dorm where the student victims reside is a renovated mental asylum that sadistic psychiatrist Magnus Burke took over until rebelling teen inmates killed him (0:21). He describes Burke's lobotomies (0:22). We view a set of large silver handled picks while the doctor conducts a procedure in the background. We see inmates in restraints, on gurneys. String describes how Burke would, "do lobotomies by hand drilling holes into heads."

Depictions of suicide start early in the film with Madison, another student, as a child with her brother Brandon witnessing their father shoot himself (0:04 off camera). Exploring her dorm at the converted asyslum Madison finds her brother crying in a corner. He shoots himself in the head then disappears (6:26). Later we find that he killed himself a year earlier and that their father had been a patient at the asylum.

The students (now including Tommy, Ivy, Holt and Maya) explore Dr. Burke's long abandoned office. Madison reads a file, perhaps that of her father (0:28)

A series of flashbacks show each of the students' childhood abuse whose respective perpetrators turn into Dr. Burke who carries the abuse to more violent, even lethal extremes: String is first (0:36 ). Madison then finds him hanging in his room (0:39), but when she returns with others, he has disappeared. Maya finds herself at an earlier time when a man beats her (0:53). Tommy relives abuse by his mother (1:02). Ivy relives the childhood experience of her father making (presumably pornographic) movies of her. Holt's flashback relives, rather than abuse, the drowning of his brother who turns into Dr. Burke (1:21).

Dr. Burke performs a lobotomy on a boy in an operating room by thrusting picks into his eyes (1:10).

Ivy shows Madison the "self mutilation" of her wrist (0:48).

Madison reports her father's hallucinations of voices and visions and how he and her brother Brandon killed themselves. She says, "insanity runs in the family" (0:55).

Holt tells Madison he is a recovering drug addict, who, because he was shooting heroin, allowed his little brother to drown, "I killed my little brother." (0:57) He later relives this experience while fighting Dr. Burke (1:19).

Dr. Burke lobotomizes maintenance man and former inmate Wilbur Mackey as a child (1:15).

In the end as Dr. Burke appears to have trapped Madison and Holt she disarms him by asking him for help, but as he promises to erase the painful memories of her family by lobotomizing her she stabs him through the skull, ending the nightmare (1:25).

lobotomy | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | recovered memory | sadism | suicide

Transamerica

#transamerica

This film to me is more about family than gender transition. Did Bree's Gender Identity Disorder result from the dysfunction in her family? Did it give her the capacity to individuate? Was she so capable that she could handle both problems? Yes, those two problems and the discovery of a son she didn't know she had, and who was himself a handful.

Early in the film (~0:02) Dr. Breitling, apparently a psychiatrist, conducts a (structured?) psychiatric examination of Bree, apparently to determine whether she will undergo sex reassignment surgery. He accuses her of providing the answers she thinks will qualify her. The psychiatrist refers to a mythical "APA category" of "gender dysphoria" which he says must be a "serious mental disorder."

What strikes me about the portrayal of psychotherapy (starting ~0:06) here is that the psychotherapist, Margaret, appears to be treating nothing, certainly not the Gender Identity Disorder, but rather provides support and very skillfully. Margaret tells Bree she will certify her for sex reassignment surgery, raising the question of whether her role is to assess or treat, but after Bree tells her she plans to avoid dealing with the discovery that she has a son, Margaret revokes the authorization. The numerous apparent boundary violations (~0:16 telephone call from NY; ~0:32 another phone call; ~1:31 visiting her in hospital, kissing her cheek) seem harmless at worst, indicated or even necessary at best. Or maybe they are not violations at all.

Drugs, and not just female hormones for gender transition, come up frequently. Bree's son Toby asks for "percs, Vicodin, and anything with codeine" (0:12). Toby's friend provides him with a powdered drug in small pouches that seems likely to be cocaine (0:17). Toby snorts cocaine (0:30). Toby rubs the powdered drug inside his mouth (1:33). Bree's sister talks about her sobriety and fear of relapse. How much do you think her recovery gave her the capacity to support Bree when she herself must have found it challenging to stay healthy while sticking with such dysfunctional parents?

Suicide comes up in conversation several times: We discover that Toby found his mother after she killed herself with CO from a car in a closed garage (~0:29). A character (Bree's sister?) says she would rather "slit my wrists" (1:10). Bree's mother recounts how she tried to have Bree (then Stanley) committed after she tried to kill herself (1:21). Toby and Bree talk about her suicide attempt with half a bottle of Nembutal (1:24).

Bree and Toby join a group meeting of individuals of ambiguous or altered gender (and one "GG -- genuine girl") (0:42).

What kind of family emotional process do you see here? The film seems to portray Mom as the bad parent, but it seems like Dad could have made a difference.

boundaries | cocaine | cross-dressing | Gender Identity Disorder | gender transition | pentobarbital | psychiatrist | psychotherapist | psychotherapy | sex reassignment surgery | suicide | Transvestic Fetishism

Eros

Of the three short films in this trilogy, only the second, Equilibrium, contains any reference to psychiatry worth mentioning here. It consists almost entirely of a parody of a session of psychoanalysis (~0:48).

First we see the patient, Nick, smoking a cigarette, walking around the office in his overcoat, and hear him talking about problems at work and a particular problem with his wife, involving a recurrent dream. The psychoanalyst, Dr. Pearl, clings to a spiral notebook but seems nervous himself. He convinces Nick to sit and finally to take off his shoes and try the couch.

Only with Nick safely reclining, and facing the other way, does Dr. Pearl relax. He removes a pair of opera glasses from a hiding place and looks intently out the window, all the while encouraging Nick to continue talking about his dream. After Dr. Pearl puts the opera glasses away he rummages through his cabinets until he finds a larger pair of binoculars with which he again peers through the window. He pulls up the blinds and opens the window. The patient continues to talk. Dr. Pearl crafts a paper airplane from a piece of paper. Nick moves to get off the couch. Dr. Pearl admonishes him that if he sees the analyst's facial expression he will regard it as critical which he cannot allow. He aims carefully and throws the plane out the window.

Dr. Pearl begins to gesture at someone below, indicating they should meet him on the street below in ten minutes. He suggests that since Nick's "breakthrough" must have exhausted him he should rest on the couch. When Nick appears to have fallen asleep he sneaks out the door.

psychoanalysis | psychoanalyst