The Singing Detective

Writer Dan lies in a hospital bed suffering from severe psoriasis. A group of doctors making rounds visits him, demonstrating how not to do bedside manner. One of the doctors suggests Dan might need "Librium, Valium, antidepressants, and barbiturates of course." (0:11)

Dan is told, "You should take the tranquilizers." (0:15)

The Chief of Staff tells Dan about Dr. Gibbon, referring to him only as a psychotherapist. (0:17)

Dan meets with Dr. Gibbon, probably a psychiatrist. Gibbon tells him, "Most chronic skin patients are on tranquilizers or antidepressants." (0:26)

A psychotherapy session with Dr. Gibbon. (1:02)

Another psychotherapy session with Dr. Gibbon. When the psychiatrist asks Dan about his mother he responds, "She killed herself." (1:22)

Dan, hiding in a closet, points the barrel of a revolver at his chin as though preparing to shoot himself, but he shoots a woman standing outside the closet instead. (1:34)

psychiatrist | psychotherapist | psychotherapy | suicide

Le Combat dans L'ile

Anne asks the pharmacist for some Vériane, but he offers instead "these new sleeping pills." She replies, "That American stuff?" and agrees to try it. Back in the car she reads the label in English: "Don't use before..." (0:04)

On the phone Serge asks Clément whether he is drunk. Clément replies, "I took some sleeping pills. I'm not used to them." (0:18)

Having returned to their apartment Clément tries to awaken Anne, already in bed. She protests, "Leave me alone. I took a sleeping pill." (0:31)

hypnotic

Restraint

Andrew tells Ron and Dale "I can't go outside... afraid of open spaces." As Ron drags him outside Andrew begs for "my pills" and appears to suffer a panic attack. (0:10) Dale tells Ron "He's agoraphobic." (0:12)

Ron has locked unconscious Dale in the car and run a hose from the exhaust to the interior. To save her from carbon monoxide poisoning Andrew must overcome his fear and go outside. (1:18)

Andrew returns to the car, removes Dale, and after fighting with Ron, carries her into the house. (1:22)

Agoraphobia

The Hidden Blade

Spoiler alert!

Multiple references to hara-kiri illustrate the role of this specific type of suicide in feudal Japan.

Samurai Katagiri tells the story of his father who "had to commit hara-kiri." (0:05)

More references to hara-kiri: (0:49, 0:56)

Katagiri tries to convince his friend samurai Hazama that it would be more honorable to commit hara-kiri. (1:35, 1:38, 1:42)

Hazama tells Katagiri he has instructed his wife to cut her own throat (Note he has not told her to commit hara-kiri.) if he dies.

Katagiri grieves the death of his friend (1:44)

Katagiri discovers his friend's wife has killed herself. (1:52)

Bereavement | suicide

Atonement

Elderly novelist Briony explains in a television interview how she expects to die of Vascular Dementia from "a series of tiny strokes." (1:47)

Vascular Dementia

Watchmen

Walter (a.k.a. superhero Rorschach) wears a burlap-like mask with constantly morphing inkblots suggestive of the namesake psychological test.

Laurie (a.k.a. superhero Silk Spectre II) recalls the death of a man who appeared to have tried to kill Adrian (a.k.a. superhero Ozymandias) in a conversation with Dan (a.k.a. superhero Nite Owl II): "... suicide pill... potassium cyanide... dead before he hit the ground." (1:31)

The prison psychiatrist administers the Rorschach test to superhero Rorschach. (1:38)

As destruction of the city begins the prison psychiatrist's briefcase falls open spilling inkblot cards on the pavement. (2:42)

Jon (a.k.a. superhero Dr. Manhattan) obliterates Walter, leaving only a symmetrical "blood blot" in the snow. (2:52)

psychiatrist | psychological testing | Hermann Rorschach | suicide

Blue Velvet

Gangster Frank inhales an unidentified gas (nitrous oxide?) through a tube using a facemask. (0:44, 1:22, 1:23, 1:53, 1:54)

Frank and singer Dorothy engage in sadomasochistic sex. (0:44)

Dorothy orders protagonist Jeffrey to "hit me." (0:50)

Dorothy tells Jeffrey, "I want you to hurt me." (1:08) Jeffrey reluctantly hits Dorothy. (1:09)

Inhalant | Inhalant Intoxication | nitrous oxide | sadomasochism | Sexual Masochism | Sexual Sadism

Last Chance Harvey

No scene depicts psychotherapy or even alludes to the treatment, but in a pivotal scene, Kate, after she and Harvey have known each other for only a few hours, and with no professional training, recognizes one of many "last chances" and tells Harvey he must do something. With reluctance he follows her direction with the result that he reverses, not entirely on his own, an emotional cutoff, and everyone lives happily ever after. It occurs to me that such an intervention for many psychotherapists is to die for, and for others, notably psychoanalysts, is sacrilege.

If you are a psychotherapist, would you want to intervene like Kate? If not, what would you see as risks of intervening and potential benefits of refraining?

If you are a layperson, perhaps a Harvey or someone in his family, would you want a psychotherapist to act like Kate did or leave you to spend years understanding yourself?

emotional cutoff | psychotherapy

Imitation of Life

Spoiler alert!

The story could not have unfolded without the death of pancake entrepreneur Bea's husband.

Pancake entrepreneur Delilah "give out all of a sudden" (1:28) and dies (1:40) leaving her daughter Peola, Bea, and Bea's daughter Jessie to grieve her loss. Includes scenes from the funeral service.

Bereavement

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Spoiler alert!

Using an elegant and rare, if not brilliant and unique, cinematic device, director Colombani illustrates the contrasting realities of an erotomanic stalker and her victim.

Art student Angelique attempts suicide by turning on the gas stove (without lighting the gas) in the home where she has been house sitting, next door to cardiologist Loic. (0:39)

Loic saves Angelique by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation before emergency workers load her into the ambulance. (1:14)

We learn that, apparently in a judicial proceeding, Angelique is to be confined to a "psychiatric home" after a psychiatrist has diagnosed her with erotomania. (1:27)

After she tries to escape from to mental-health technicians and nurse injects Angelique with an unspecified drug before she is placed in restraints. (1:29)

Angelique is prepared for electroconvulsive therapy. (1:30)

Angelique tells a psychiatrist she realizes that her belief that Loic loved her was just a dream. He tells her that she will do well as long as she continues to take her medication, but as she leaves the hospital, suitcase in hand, a hospital maintenance man discovers that she has created a full size likeness of Loic out of hundreds of capsules and tablets on the wall behind an armoire in her room and scrapes it off, apparently without reporting his find to the medical staff. (1:31)

delusion | electroconvulsive therapy | erotomania | Erotomanic Type | psychiatrist | restraint | stalking | suicide

Blue Sky

By (0:19) we see signs of possible personality disorder in Carly. Her husband Hank, a US Army Major, minimizes her cluster B behaviors to their daughters.

Carly's daughter Alex says about her mother, "She's got to see somebody [apparently referring to a mental health professional]... She needs help." Hank responds, "She needs help arranging the furniture and unpacking the suitcases Ms. Freud [apparently referring to Sigmund Freud]." (0:20)

Carly tells Hank she has had him committed to a psychiatric hospital. (1:12)

Army psychiatrist Dr. Vankay greets Carly and explains that because of "procedures" she will not be able to visit Hank in the hospital for two weeks. (1:14)

Dr. Vankay tells Carly, "Everyone here is under temporary sedation." He walks her and the daughters through a hospital day room to visit Hank who sits at a picnic table outdoors. He appears to suffer from extrapyramidal symptoms causing slow thick speech. Could this result from chlorpromazine? Since Hank appears to suffer from no mental disorder would you consider this chemical restraint? (1:15)

Becky asks Alex, "Do you think craziness is hereditary?" (1:18)

Hank's commanding officer Vince meets Dr. Vankay at the hospital. (1:32)

chemical restraint | extrapyramidal syndrome | Sigmund Freud | personality disorder | psychiatrist | psychiatric hospital

The Art of Travel

Christopher tells fellow travelers the story of how the loss of his wife and daughter in a motor vehicle accident inspired him to attempt to break a record. (0:52)

Traveler Conner smokes with a hookah in a restaurant or bar in Peru. (1:28)

Bereavement | hookah

Bluebeard

Spoiler alert!

The mother superior tells Marie-Catherine and Anne that their father has been killed in an accident. (0:05)

The sisters and their mother pray at the side of their father's body. Anne blames him for abandoning them and expresses her hatred toward him while Marie-Catherine expresses only love. (0:11)

Modern times sister Catherine falls to her death, and Bluebeard is beheaded. (1:15)

Bereavement

New Jack City

Gangster "Gee Money" gives a bottle of crack cocaine to gang leader Nino. Gangster "Duh Duh Duh" stutters. (0:8)

Nino introduces crack to the rest of the gang leaders. (0:12)

Drug deals and crack vials. (0:16)

Dozens of empty crack vials littered the street. (0:18)

Crack addict and smalltime dealer Pookie tells undercover cop Scott about his dependence on crack. (0:28)

Pookie, now in treatment for his addiction, talks about the negative consequences of using in group counseling. A man talks about staying clean "one day at a time." A young man talks about how he thought he could quit anytime. A woman talks about her "crack baby." (0:29)

Pookie, in group again and further along in his recovery: "When I get out I'm just going to take everything one day at a time." (0:31)

Pookie working in a crack lab. Crack addicts smoking the drug with pipes. (0:32)

Pookie struggles with his craving to use, throws down his pipe. Pookie places vials of crack in a plastic bag. (0:48)

Pookie gives in and smokes crack in a pipe. Later, in the lab, gangsters recognize his intoxication. (0:49)

Gee Money smokes crack. (0:58)

Scott and undercover cop Nick grieve at Pookie's burial. (0:59)

 Nick tells Scott how he identifies with Pookie and about his belief that drugs and death do not discriminate according to race. (1:01)

"Crack kills" painted on a basketball court. (1:05)

Nino tells Scott how he killed a woman, whom we later learn may have been Scotty's mother, on the street while intoxicated with angel dust. (1:06)

addiction | Bereavement | cocaine | Cocaine Intoxication | group psychotherapy | recovery | rehabilitation | Stuttering

Citizen Kane

#citizenkane

Kane's second wife Susan survives an overdose of an unidentified drug referred to only as a sedative. Although Kane attempts to dismiss the incident as unintentional the content of her talk suggests she attempted to kill herself. (1:36)

overdose | sedative | suicide

Factory Girl

Spoiler alert!

Someone picks up a sign that says "no drug use." (0:12)

Edie talks about Silver Hill psychiatric hospital while we see brief scenes representing the inside of the facility. (0:15)

Talking by telephone to a woman who appears to be a nurse with whom she connected at Silver Hill, Edie says, "I want to die." (0:17)

Andy Warhol opens a bottle labeled "Limbitrol," cuts a tablet in half with a razor, and places it in his mouth. (0:18)

During a reference to Edie having undergone treatment at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, the first of many scenes in which she sounds as though she might be talking to a psychotherapist or counselor. (0:21, 0:32, 0:36, 0:43, 1:12) We only see the professional toward the end of the film. (1:31)

A woman injects a drug intramuscularly into her leg. She talks about taking "Adderall, disoxane [phonetic spelling of what may have represented Desoxyn], dextro methamphetamine." [Sic] Edie's friend Bridget says, "My parents had me doped up on those diet pills since I was 10." Edie says, "My parents plopped me on the 'benz' before I could drive." [Is this a play on words mixing names of the automobile manufacturer (Mercedes Benz) and the drug (Benzedrine)?] (0:37)

Edie is injected with an unidentified drug in her backside. (0:40)

Edie takes sugar cubes, presumably containing LSD, by mouth. (0:54)

Edie converses with a male character identified only as a musician but suggesting Bob Dylan. She tells him how her brother "hanged himself at Silver Hill." She said her other brother "Bobby ran his bike into a bus." (1:01)

Edie and the musician share a joint. (1:06)

A table in Edie's apartment holds a syringe and prescription bottles identified only with her name. (1:14)

A man injects Edie with heroin "to come down from speed." (1:17)

Max (?) Injects Edie with an unidentified drug. (1:26)

We learn that Edie died from an overdose of drugs in 1970.

Edie implies strongly that her father may have sexually abused her during her childhood.

amitriptyline/chlordiazepoxide | amphetamine/dextroamphetamine | cannabis | drugs | heroin | joint | methamphetamine | suicide