Self-Medicated

Misnamed, this film primarily addresses Andrew's struggle to deal with the death of his father, not just with drugs, but with self-defeating and often dangerous behavior and his mother's decision to have him forcibly abducted to a treatment center. It does not address the concept of self-medication.

Smoking a joint while driving (0:02).

Buying drugs from a dealer (0:08).

A friend tells Andrew his mom Louise has been getting prescription drugs from Mexico, and we discover that the death of Andrew's father has contributed to events to follow (0:12).

As Louise takes pills we see a bottle labeled "Xanex" on the night stand (0:12).

Smoking crack cocaine (?) with a glass pipe (0:14).

Drug use at a party in the desert: kids inhaling nitrous oxide (?) from balloons; asking how many "'shrooms" one should use (0:15).

Two men abduct Andrew (0:21) to take him to the Brightwood rehab center (0:23) where he meets Dan, who introduces himself as the head counselor.


Dr. Reinholz (psychiatrist?) reads Andrew's history from written records. (0:27)

Dr. Reinholz administers psychological testing to Andrew. (0:29)

Group psychotherapy led by counselor Dan. Trevor talks about heroin use. A girl talks about abuse by her stepfather. (0:35)

Group psychotherapy. (0:39, 0:52)

Dr. Reinholz recommends Zoloft for Andrew because he suffers from "clinical depression" and "repressed emotional development." (0:43)

Individual counseling with counselor Kieth, including confrontation. (0:45)

Group psychotherapy with Dan. John talks about his brother's suicide. (0:49)

After Andrew loses control and becomes assaultive and defiant staff inject him with an unidentified drug. (0:51)

Friends share a joint. (0:52)

Keith running group psychotherapy and teaching visualization techniques. (0:54)

Andrew says, "I will kill myself." (1:06)

Andrew smokes marijuana in a bong. (1:09)

Louise take pills (1:11) and admits she has taken more drugs than the doctor prescribed (1:33).

Andrew is finally able to scatter his father's ashes according to his wishes. (1:40)

alprazolam | Bereavement | cannabis | counselor | drug | group psychotherapy | joint | psychiatrist | psylocin | psylocybin | rehabilitation | Substance Abuse | suicide

A Day at the Beach

Bernie's need for alcohol leads him to neglect his crippled daughter Winnie. Although evidence of adverse effects of excessive alcohol use come to light, for example when Bernie cannot recall a bout of heavy drinking despite a reminder by the train conductor (0:16), he generally appears very healthy throughout the film, reminiscent of Leaving Las Vegas.

Numerous scenes portray heavy drinking throughout the film. Several scenes depict dysfunction attributable to intoxication, but with scant evidence of slurred speech:

Bernie falls out of his chair. (1:13)

Bernie appears nauseated then ataxic. (1:19)

Bernie cries then appears ataxic again. (1:21)

Bernie, ataxic once more, falls to the ground. It is not clear whether he has passed out or suffered a head injury. (1:22)

alcohol | alcoholic | Alcohol Intoxication | alcoholism | blackout | heavy drinking

Thirteen

Dr. David Allen suggested this film as an illustration of Borderline Personality Disorder. Seventh grader Tracy presents just such a picture, at least on the surface. But can we better explain her behavior in light of a combination of adolescent angst, negative peer influence, drug abuse, and growing up with a (recovering) addict/alcoholic mother Melanie (and occasionally her recovering boyfriend Brady) and too little contact with her biological dad who seems challenged in relating to her?

Tracy appears to be doing well until she succeeds in connecting with Evie whom she believes to be "cool." Evie introduces her to shoplifting, drugs, sex, dishonesty and defiance, but rejects and betrays her in the end.

Tracy and Evie intoxicated with inhalants: "Hit me. I can't feel anything." They take turns hitting each other. (0:01)

Melanie: "I haven't been to a meeting in a week, and you know I need to go." (0:06)

Melanie talks AA: "That's [mumbled man's name]'s cake. He's 12 years sober. Keep coming back. It works if you work it." (0:07)

Evie sells drugs. (0:21, 0:57)

Tracy appears intoxicated. (0:21, 0:59)

Brady smoking (crack cocaine?) with a soda can in a flashback. (0:25)

Tracy scratches her wrist with scissors until she bleeds. (0:39)

Tracy, Evie, and two guys smoking joints. (0:46)

Melanie talking on the telephone with her sponsor. (0:54)

Brady, recognizing that she is upset, undresses Melanie and puts her in the shower, then packs his things in order to leave the house, also recognizing the threat to his own sobriety, to avoid getting "loaded." Melanie tells him, "Go see Moreno. He'll read the Big Book, and that's what you wanted." (1:05)

Tracy and Evie snort an unidentified drug through straws. (1:06)

Repeat of the opening scene in which Tracy and Evie use inhalants and hit each other, this time injuring Tracy more seriously. (1:14)

Tracy, unable to find the scissors, cuts her wrist with a razor blade, bleeds. (1:23)

Evie's cousin Brooke has discovered a stash of drugs belonging to Evie, but Evie lies to her and Melanie, blaming Tracy. (1:28)

Despite the trouble in their lives, in the end it appears that Melanie's unflinching love for Tracy will likely prevail, even without mention of professional help. Brady and Melanie demonstrate how their own resilience and the strength of their recovery from addiction through an unspecified 12-step program help them get back on track in the face of negative impacts from outside the family.

The name of the film probably refers to Tracy's age. But could there be another meaning? 12-step recovery program members sometimes label romantic involvement with someone else in the program, like Brady's and Melanie's, as the 13th step.

If this family did consult you as a professional Tracy would arguably seem to be the best candidate for identified patient. Would you want Brady to participate in family psychotherapy? How would you help Melanie deal with Tracy's behaviors, especially her self-mutilation? Would you try to limit her contact with Evie? How important might it be to demonstrate your respect for Melanie's 12-step program? How would you avoid encroaching on Melanie's relationship with her sponsor? Might you invite her sponsor to a session? Would you diagnose Tracy with Borderline Personality Disorder? If not, what other diagnoses might you entertain, or would that be important to your approach? Would you encourage Tracy to attend Alateen? Would you support Melanie in limiting Tracy's contact with Evie? Would you work with Tracy alone? Would you invite Evie to a session? Would you encourage Tracy to build more of a connection with Brady?

Big Book | cocaine | drug | inhalant | recovery | self-mutilation | sponsor | Substance Abuse

Cloud 9

Spoiler alert!

Inge learns in a middle-of-the-night phone call from her daughter Petra that her husband Werner has killed himself, apparently because she has left him for Karl (1:27). The suicide is only implicit: We see Werner in a dark room, then a train rumbling through the dark, then Karl answering his phone. Werner loves trains.

suicide

Fix

Bella and Milo plan to bail Milo's brother Leo out of jail to take him to rehab so he will not face time in prison. (0:00)

Leo says mockingly, "Admitting you have a problem is the first step." (0:06)

Leo alludes to "rehab... where we first tried heroin." (0:22)

Leo says he will "kill myself before I go back to jail." (0:26)

A sign on the wall says "No Drugs." Leo: "You don't know what it's like to come off drugs." (0:43)

Discussion of selling marijuana to raise $5,000 to pay for Leo to be admitted to rehab. (0:49)

Marijuana growing operation; packaging it for sale. (0:57)

Leo's friend says, "... don't do drugs anymore... sober... You know what? I'll sponsor you." (1:00)

Leo appears to be withdrawing from heroin. (1:07, 1:09)

Junkie in shooting gallery tells how Leo gets them "clean needles." (1:10)

Still in the shooting gallery Leo cooks heroin with lighter and spoon. He admits that, "now I just fix not to get sick" and injects between his toes before contemplating suicide: "I can just take one more big shot and go to sleep for good." (1:12)

 Having obtained sufficient funds by selling the marijuana (1:20) Milo, Leo, and Bella arrive at rehab. (1:24)

cannabis | heroin | Opioid Withdrawal | rehabilitation | suicide

Place Vendome

Marianne in a "clinic" for alcoholics (0:06, 0:10).

Realizing he has hopelessly bankrupted the family business Vincent appears to intentionally drive his car into the side of a truck, killing himself (0:21).

Marianne: "I can't drink just a drop." (0:57)

Marianne: "I'm on the wagon." (1:16)

alcoholic | on the wagon | suicide

Ju-on (The Grudge)

Rika find Ms. Sachie in a catatonic state (0:06, 0:11, 0:18, 0:20, 0:39).

Kazumi appears catatonic but tries to talk (0:21).

Rika appears catatonic (0:39).

Since this state seems to appear after traumatic exposure would we more accurately describe it as dissociative?

catatonia | dissociation

Return to Paradise

In boat on river smoking a joint (0:00).

Smoking hashish in a bong (0:09).

Hashish wrapped in foil (0:12).

Man smoking "pure rock cocaine" with a glass pipe in the back of a limousine (1:03).

cannabis | cocaine | hashish | joint

Horsey

Spoiler alert!

Smoking a joint (0:03).

Smoking unidentified drug in a pipe (0:08).

Ryland cooking, using a tourniquet, shooting heroin, nodding (0:14, 1:03, 1:20). The last time he does this several times in a row, then Delilah finds him dead after overdose (1:22), grieves her loss.

Ryland's sister Steph confronts her boyfriend Sandy about using heroin and speedballs (0:28).

Steph finds Sandy overdosed with heroin (0:29).

Steph confronts Ryland: "You can smoke it for about a week, then you could try some methadone, but you've got to stay away from the needles, Ryland" (0:43)

Delilah finds Ryland preparing to shoot heroin, flushes it down the toilet (0:48).

Delilah says she is "so numb you have to cut yourself to feel something" (1:16).

Delilah seems to have no addiction, but does she have a Personality Disorder? If so, which one?

addiction | Bereavement | cannabis | heroin | joint | overdose

On Guard

Lagardère insufflates snuff (0:10).

Blanche grieves, believing her infant daughter Aurore has died (0:50).

Bereavement | nicotine

Psycho

#psycho

Spoiler alert!

We must keep in mind that Marion stated, "You can't buy off unhappiness with pills." long before the advent of Prozac. (0:10)

Norman might have done better to practice what he preached: "There's no sense dwelling on our losses." (0:28)

Marion hears "Mother's" voice yelling at Norman (0:32).

Norman tells Marion, "She isn't quite herself today." Indeed, between Norman and his mother, it's hard to tell which self belongs to whom. (0:34)

Norman tells Marion, "A son is a poor substitute for a lover." (0:40)

Marion asks Norman, "Wouldn't it be better if you put her... someplace?" Norman replies, "You mean a mad house?" (0:40) Norman continues, "It's not as if she were a maniac, a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes." (0:42)

Norman watches Marion through a hole in her bathroom wall (0:44).

Mother enters Marion's bathroom wielding a kitchen knife. (0:47)

Mother kills Arbogast on the stairs. (1:17)

Norman converses with Mother as he carries her down to the fruit cellar. (1:25)

In the fruit cellar Mother, whom we now know to be Norman, goes for Lila with the knife. (1:41)

Sheriff: "If anyone gets any answers, it'll be the psychiatrist." Dr. Fred Richmond says he got the history from Mother, that Norman no longer exists, that the other half has taken over. Psychiatrist Richmond says, a "psychiatrist merely tries to explain it... the mother half of Norman's mind... a clinging demanding woman... At times he could be both personalities... never all Norman... often only mother." (1:42)

An unidentified man suggests, "He's a transvestite." Dr Richmond counters, "Not exactly." He explains that would involve sexual motives not present here, that Norman cross-dressed to maintain the illusion that his mother still lives. (1:45)

We hear Mother's voice as Norman sits thinking. (1:47)

Why not diagnose Norman with Dissociative Identity Disorder?

All of which sets the stage for Psycho II

Bereavement | cross-dressing | intermetamorphosis | misidentification syndromes | psychiatrist | voyeurism

Somewhere in Time

Spoiler alert!

Richard makes an autosuggestion recording and plays it back in the hope that by hypnosis (and a few other tricks) he will travel back in time to meet Elise (0:26, 0:33).

When Richard awakens back in the present he enters a catatonic state (1:38) and dies, presumably of starvation and dehydration. Suicide?

autosuggestion | catatonia | hypnosis | suggestion | suicide

Between Your Legs

Javier and Miranda start their relationship at a meeting of "Association of Sex Addicts Anonymous" (0:06), a self-help group meeting (0:20, 0:22). Members share their stories (1:46).

Policeman Jareño says, "I'll shoot myself." as he discusses his plan to visit the woman he loves who has been hospitalized after losing part of her leg in a plane crash. When he visits her she tells him she does not love him but lost the only one she loved in the crash and the she should have died with him. He shoots her dead. Jareño visits Félix, Miranda's husband (also a policeman.) to arrange surrender, but when he sees his friend's pistol he places it in his mouth and pulls the trigger, killing himself (1:28).

Miranda gives her husband an overdose of Valium (1:20, 1:25) so she can go to Javier.

Brief scene of a woman snorting cocaine lines on a mirror with a straw (1:22).

Several scenes include cross-dressing, but I won't spoil it for you by telling you where they come up in the film. I was completely fooled.

addiction | Bereavement | cocaine | cross-dressing | diazepam | meetings | overdose | suicide

Bubba Ho-Tep

Sebastian Haff believes he is Elvis Presley (Maybe he really is.), and Jack believes he is really Jack Kennedy (0:23).

Elvis' (Sebastian's?) impotence remits (0:35).

intermetamorphosis | Male Erectile Disorder

Death Becomes Her

Obsessed with Madeleine, Helen incurs the wrath of her psychotherapy group and her psychotherapist, presumably in a psychiatric hospital (0:11).

Madeleine must be told she looks younger every day (0:14).

Helen proposes use of a fictional tranquilizer, "Narconol" (Narconal?), to murder Madeleine (0:44). Because she describes it as "alcohol based" might the -ol suffix be more the more fitting of the two?

group psychotherapy | narcissism | psychotherapist | psychiatric hospital | sedative hypnotic

Bigger Than Life

Spoiler alert!

Ed's physicians diagnose him with the rare illness polyarteritis nodosa and tell him he will likely die in a matter of months unless he tries the new experimental drug cortisone (0:23). Unfortunately the drug appears to induce a Mood Disorder dominated by an episode otherwise indistinguishable from mania that almost destroys his life and that of his family.

Ed with cigarettes in his hospital bed (0:18)

Ed's doctors warn him he must tell them about the "slightest depression" (0:26).

Ed felt "ten feet tall" (0:27)

Ed begins to spend money far beyond his means, alarming his wife Lou and son Richie, buying her expensive clothes and proposing to buy his son a new bicycle (0:31).

Richie recognizes that his father is not acting like his usual self (0:34). Wally notices, "He isn't the same guy" (0:50). Lou realizes "He's not himself" (0:54), tries to buy some stability for the family by playing along, but he criticizes her.

Ed appears to have increased energy (0:35), reduced need for sleep (0:54).

Ed reveals irritable mood in reacting to Richie's television show and Lou's questions (0:36).

"Keyed up" Ed promises to "order a big one" (water heater), aggravates Lou with his expressed entitlement to all the hot water he needs (0:37).

Richie finds Ed crying on the sofa in the middle of the night. Ed criticizes himself as he looks at the bills he cannot pay (0:40). Ed criticizes Richie (1:00). Hypersensitive to the sound of milk bottles clinking together he criticizes the milk man (1:03)

Ed takes extra pills (0:43). He forges a prescription (0:59). Patients often take more opiates or sedatives that prescribed, but how often does this happen with steroids like cortisone and prednisone?

Ed admits to only mild depressed mood but lies to his doctor about spoiling cortisone pills to conceal his excessive use (0:44).

Overbearing, arrogant, imperious, and insensitive with parents of his students at a PTA meeting (0:46).

Expansive and grandiose, Ed promises "a whole series of magazine articles" and a "special project," but he seems jealous of Wally (0:51). Now paranoid he appears to believe that Lou and Wally want him to stop taking the cortisone so he will die and they can pursue a love affair (1:05).

Ed's mood switches to depressed (0:57).

Ed stubbornly persists in tutoring Richie despite the fact that his son has missed two meals, and he rejects Lou's efforts to convince him to let the boy stop (1:07). Lou sneaks Richie a glass of milk, but hyper-vigilant, Ed observes that Lou cannot account for milk missing from the pitcher and accuses her of undermining his authority. He declares that she did not fool him and that the marriage is over (1:12).

Richie discovers that Ed has hidden a bottle of cortisone, but Ed catches him (1:17) then stops him from telephoning for help. Ed, reading from the Bible and brandishing scissors, tells Lou the time has come to sacrifice their son (1:20). Lou tries to stall by suggesting they must make his death look like an accident, but Ed says, "I hadn't planned to go on living." He locks her in a closet and approaches Richie with the scissors, but he stops when he sees his old football, a college memento (1:23).

Dr. Norton tells Lou the cortisone has induced a "psychosis" he has addressed by administering sedatives (1:28), but he assures her that Ed can safely continue to take the life-saving drug in the correct dose.

How would you approach this family if Lou presented for psychotherapy before the scissors scene? What kinds of challenges might you expect from Ed? Could you conduct a session with him present in one of his mood states?  Would you invite Wally to family sessions? Do you think Ed's physician would collaborate with a family psychotherapist? Would you advise Lou to seek involuntary commitment of Ed? how difficult might that have been in the 1950's? |

euphoria | grandiosity | irritable mood | mania | mood switching | Substance-Induced Mood Disorder | suicide

I Am David

David tells his friend Johannes, "I wish I were dead" (0:20). A prison guard kills Johannes soon thereafter (0:26, 0:53, 1:20).

Bereavement | suicide

Meth

Candid interviews in which gay men in various stages of addiction and recovery talk about connections between methamphetamine addiction, sex, and HIV.

The film opens with short descriptions of using with mention of snorting, smoking, shooting, hot railing, and loss of control.

Andrew talks about dealing. He appears far from making a decision to quit using. Andrew injecting another man: skin popping? (0:07), injecting himself (0:08).

Discussion of GHB and overdose with GHB (0:14); connection with sex (0:15)

Review of some adverse effects on cognitive function, the "ADD thing" (0:22). Andrew displays rapid, pressured speech, talks about self-destruction (0:41); discussion of denial, delusion, paranoia (0:55); hallucinated voices, social isolation (0:57); distorted thinking (1:00); hallucination of bugs on skin (delusional parasitosis?) (1:01).

Description of the drug becoming more important than the sex (0:24).

Interview of Andrew's mother with Andrew allowing her to believe that he is recovering (0:26). He talks about guilt and need to lie to her (0:30). Andrew talks about his inability to quit using (0:58).

Methamphetamine and HIV (0:31): I "knew I was killing myself" (0:35). One man describes how anxiety over whether he is HIV negative or positive disappeared after he learned he has tested positive, almost as though he was relieved (0:40). Andrew injects, learns he has tested positive for HIV (1:10).

Comparison of methamphetamine to cocaine, ecstasy, GHB, and ketamine (PCP?) (0:51).

Hitting bottom (1:02); recovery (1:05), meetings and sobriety (1:07); gratitude (1:09); constructive use of anger; plan to enter rehab, throwing the pipe away (1:14); first year of sobriety (1:15).

addiction | bottom | delusional parasitosis | denial | loss of control | methamphetamine | pressured speech | recovery

Amadeus

#amadeus

Salieri cuts his throat in an apparent suicide attempt (0:02). We see a variety of inmates, some restrained, in an asylum as he is admitted (0:04) and at the end (2:34).

Mozart learns of the death of his father (1:37).

Mozart's wife Constanze realized he has died soon after she returns to their home (2:29).

bereavement | psychiatric hospital | restraint | suicide

Princess Raccoon

The king, Azuchi Momoyama, like Snow White's wicked queen, plots to murder both his son, Prince Amechiyo, and Tanukihime (Princess Raccoon) to prevent them from usurping his role as "fairest in the land." He may not meet all the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but there is no doubt about his narcissism.

There is a brief reference to someone (Azuchi's queen?) having thrown herself off a cliff (0:31), but Tanukihime actually does cut her own throat when she discovers that Amechiyo has been killed (1:29).

narcissism | Narcissistic Personality Disorder | suicide

Forbidden Games

German strafing kills young Paulette's parents and her dog in the opening scenes.

Georges Dolle dies (0:38).

Michel's father beats him (1:18).

Bereavement | Physical Abuse of Child

Only the Lonely

Theresa tells Danny she's introverted (0:30). He suggests it equates to shyness, but as we hear more about her Schizoid Personality Disorder starts to fit.

Danny's mother Rose wonders whether Theresa might have "anorexia" or "bulimia" (0:54), then "alcoholism" as evidenced by her "denial" and the kind of drink she orders before dinner.

Theresa tells Danny, "I stood up for myself for the first time in my life" (0:58).

Rose, an emotional distancer, pushes everyone away, often by hurtful remarks she lamely defends as honest, but Danny cannot let go of her, even when he plans to marry Theresa, setting up an in-law triangle with distance and conflict between Rose and Theresa, and Danny fused with his mom. What will it take for him to individuate? Will Rose be able to help? Will Theresa take a functional position?

closeness/distance | fusion | individuation | Schizoid Personality Disorder | triangulation

Harry and Tonto

Spoiler Alert!

Harry talks about drugs: trips and coke (0:19); "mescaline, peyote, psylocybin, LSD, heroin" to his grandson Norman, and asks him if he has used any of them (0:23).

Harry identifies the body of his friend at the morgue (0:36).

When Harry finds his long lost female partner Jesse in a nursing home, she fails to recognize him but confabulates names, and possibly stories. (1:05)

Tonto dies (1:49).

Bereavement | confabulation | dementia

Manic

Inviting comparison with another film shot almost entirely in a psychiatric hospital, The Snake Pit, this film's shaky camera mimics a documentary or even home video, but focuses less on an individual patient, suggests little about the diagnosis (despite the film's title), and pulls fewer punches in attributing the patient's problems to outright abuse by their families.

Cheadle's David, the "staff psychologist" seems to represent, not just a psychologist or psychiatrist, but rather the film maker's impression of an amalgam of treaters and administrators, a benevolent man with problems of his own whose cowboy approach to his job may contribute to some disastrous outcomes for his charges. The mental health technicians and one or two nurses seem to constitute the only other staff, so the extent of David's responsibilities seems far in excess of what it should be fair to expect of any professional. Snake Pit's Dr. Kik in contrast, while willing to take a few risks, comes across as more controlled and competent, with a role in the treatment team that is both better defined and more in line with reality.

The ambiguous portrayal of the hospital itself encourages us to focus on the teen patients and their relationships. We see little of other units aside from brief glimpses of a few older patients with odd behaviors during outdoor recreation.

Belying the films title, we see little evidence of mania in any of the patients with the possible exception of Chad, and in his case only when David talks about his "Tegretol and Depakote," drugs often used to treat bipolar disorder and the only psychotherapeutic drugs mentioned by name. More likely potential diagnoses include Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, with acting out as the prevalent psychopathology.

Unlike in Snake Pit where treatments include individual psychotherapy and ECT, group psychotherapy, with David as psychotherapist, dominates in Manic (0:06, 0:24, 0:43, 1:06). In one session an altercation starts (0:19). In another session each patient answers questions printed on a card (0:25). Chad describes a dream (0:52). David acts out with violence himself (1:08).

Interactions between the patients dominate, although David's unorthodox interventions stand out as well.

Staff pass out pills in the day room (0:29), and inject agitated patients: a nurse injects an hysterical girl (0:18). Lyle says, "I'm not crazy," becomes agitated, gets an injection (0:01). Chemical restraint?

Drugs of abuse play a subordinate role: David takes a perfunctory drug history from Lyle on admission (0:01). He denies using any of them, but we wonder if even David believes him. A female patient shows track marks (0:08), or were they scars from self-mutilation? Lyle and Chad share a contraband joint (0:32), then Lyle relates fantasies of unlimited drug use in Amsterdam (0:34).

Other scenes takes place in the hospital day room (0:03, 0:40, 1:32).

We see a few individual but informal appearing sessions between David and the patients: with Lyle (0:12); with a female patient preparing for discharge (0:55).

A female patient talks about self-mutilation (0:16). Lyle breaks a plastic fork, apparently to cut himself but we never see him use it.

Suicide comes up while patients discuss a Van Gogh painting (0:57).

Ken seems most vulnerable to depressed mood: Lyle tries to get Ken, his roommate, out of bed (0:22); In a meeting of Ken, David, and Ken's step-father (1:00) the step-father hugs Ken in a way that clearly makes Ken uncomfortable. David has to tell him to stop an order him out (1:02). Lyle uses keys he has found to visit Ken after he has been transferred to another unit, finding him almost unresponsive (1:29).

Lyle talks about his father beating him (0:47), helps us understand his nearly killing another boy with a baseball bat, leading to his admission. Lyle assaults another patient who has provoked him verbally (1:33). Lyle escapes (1:35) but appears to return (1:38).

Sexual acting out: Lyle tries to kiss a girl patient and later gets in bed with her (1:25).

David hugs a girl as she leaves the hospital (1:16). Appropriate expression of caring or boundary violation?

Lyle confrnts Chad cutting himself, finally cuts the throat of tech who tried to stop him (1:20).

I can imagine teens identifying strongly with characters in this film. Would watching the film more likely help or hurt those struggling with similar problems? Would you want a professional like David treating you? treating a member of your family?

acting out | boundaries | chemical restraint | group psychotherapy | joint | psychiatric hospital | psychologist | psychotherapist | self-mutilation |  suicide

Stagecoach

Many films depict drinking, drunks and drunkenness, but Dr. Josiah Boone's alcoholism plays a central role in this film and illustrates a variety of aspects, for example craving, of alcoholic behavior better than many, starting at 0:06, with further episodes throughout the film. Like many films, however, it exaggerates the humor and minimizes the negative consequences.

Alcohol Intoxication | alcoholic | alcoholism | craving

Psycho II

Spoiler Alert!

Norman, having been declared "restored to sanity" by a judge in a hearing (0:04) does in fact seem relatively free of the psychopathology that plagued him in Psycho. Although you can never be really sure whether the voices are real or hallucinated (1:09) and whether he has committed the murders, until the end, it looks like at least one other serial killer may stalk the Bates Motel and the mansion.

Psychiatrist Dr. Raymond explains about Norman, "He was found not guilty by reason of insanity" and drives him home. (0:06)

Norman hears "Mother" call his name and tell him she will "show you what happens to bad little boys that poison their mothers... kill you," and sees her hand. (0:09)

Seeing the kitchen knife Norman reacts with a pause and stuttering speech. (0:21)

Voyeurism: Norman hasn't given up all his old habits. He watches Mary through a hole in the bathroom wall. Or is that really Norman? (0:36)

When Dr. Raymond drives up to check on his patient, Norman introduces him to Mary. (0:40)

Norman sees, or hallucinates, a woman in the window. (0:45)

A naughty young couple breaks into Norman's basement. The young man lights a joint. When she tells him she hears a noise, he tells her she is "stoned." (0:49)

Norman talks about apparent Dissociative Amnesia: "I always used to black out." (1:03)

Dr. Raymond visits Norman at the house. (1:14)

Norman tells Dr. Raymond his mother is not dead, "My mother spoke to me downstairs." (1:16), but Dr. Raymond arranges to have her body exhumed and finally Norman indicates he is convinced (1:19), but is he?

Dr. Raymond follows Ms. Loomis (1:25). He encounters Norman, who talks about his "real" mother. (1:28)

Mary tells Norm, "You're mad as a hatter." (1:34 )

Ms. Spool visits Norman, tells him she is his biological mother but gave him up to her sister to raise when, "the state put me away for awhile." (1:45) After he kills her we still hear what sounds like her voice. Is it Norman's intermetamorphosis or hallucination? (1:48)

Does Dr. Raymond pay the ultimate price for boundary violation?

Thus begins Psycho III.

boundaries | cannabis | hallucination | insanity defense | joint | psychiatrist | Voyeurism

Ship of Fools

When she asks for "something to help me sleep," Dr. Schumann tells La Condesa she, "can't take pills every time you want to be stimulated or sedated," but he injects her, apparently intravenously, with a drug and tells her to "talk until the drug takes effect." (0:22)

La Condesa appears sweaty and tremulous, presumably as a result of withdrawing from a drug. Dr. Schumann administers another injection, this one intramuscular. (1:03)

parenteral | sedative-hypnotic | Sedative, Hypnotic, or Anxiolytic Withdrawal

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Kate and David talk about a plan to suicide after they hear of the murder of their only son, Andrew. (0:03)

Murder suspect Shirley's psychiatrist, Dr. David Doucet posted $65,000 bail (0:26, 1:18). He was later disciplined for professional misconduct (1:22). Do you believe this was the only boundary violation, or might you suspect there were others?

Shirley administered "Ativan" to Zachary before drowning him and herself (1:10).

Shirley had previously attempted suicide and was placed on suicide watch while incarcerated (1:20).

Several brief clips of a grief counselor talking about bereavement toward the end of the film.

Bereavement | boundaries | lorazepam | psychiatrist | suicide