Equus

#equus

The film opens with psychiatrist Martin Dysart talking about Alan, the boy he will treat, and a horse: "...and turn them into grief... an overworked psychiatrist..." (0:01)

A series of scenes: In a psychiatric hospital recreation room Martin breaks up a fight among teen patients. He listens to a male patient on a couch in his office. He prevents a young man newly arrived with his mother from escaping admission. He attends a psychotherapy group. He eats lunch with young patients in the hospital cafeteria. In an examining room he performs a physical exam on a man on a table. He holds a punching bag for a young man. (0:04)

Psychiatrist (?) Hesther asks Martin to take on the case of a young man who blinded six horses. (0:06)

New patient Alan sings as Martin starts to interview him. (0:08)

Martin tells Alan, "This is not a luny bin... you'll be packed off to a mental hospital..." (0:10)

Martin describes his own violent dream. (0:12)

Martin interviews Alan's parents at their home. (0:14)

Alan awakens Martin who was sleeping in his office. Alan assumes a posture. (0:22)

Harry, owner of the horses Alan blinded, tells Martin of a girl who suffered a "breakdown." (0:40)

Martin listens to a tape Alan recorded alone. (0:46)

Alan beats himself with a wood coat hanger in his bedroom. (0:51)

Session in Martin's office. (0:53)

Martin hypnotizes Alan. (1:12)

Martin says of Equus: "He's calling me out of the black cave of the psyche." (1:26)

Alan's mother Dora talks to Martin about blaming of parents for chidrens' problems. (1:29 )

Alan predicts to Martin that he will "give me truth drugs." Martin plans Hesther to give Alan a placebo instead. (1:33)

Hesther tells Martin at dinner, "That's just pure old masochism." (1:37)

Martin tells Hesther, referring to Alan, "... and go off to the hospital to treat him for insanity." (1:39)

Alan watches television with other kids in the day room. A psychotherapy session. (1:42)

Alan swallows a pill after Martin tells him it is a truth drug. (1:45)

Martin injects Alan with a hypnotic and orders him to "sleep, sleep..." (2:10)

Martin struggles with what he can and should do for Alan, "Passion... can be destroyed by a doctor." Is it right for him to take Alan's pain away? (2:13)

group psychotherapy | hypnosis | narcosynthesis | placebo | placebo effect | psyche | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | psychotherapist | psychotherapy