The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

In a restaurant a woman cries over the body of the recently deceased owner. (0:08)

Ambassador Raphael explains to his friends Francois and Henri how "they arrested an ambassador with ninety pounds of cocaine." He opens his "diplomatic bag" and passes out plastic bags full of white powder. He takes a pinch from a pill box and deposits it in a palm of each of them. They agree on its purity. (0:12)

Francois says of the dry Martini, "There is no better tranquilizer." (0:17)

Florence tells the party, "I've several complexes. The Euclid complex." (0:32)

Hubert, the lieutenant as a boy, sees visions of his deceased parents and hears his mother talking to him. (0:34)

Raphael tells the terrorist, "If Mao said that it means he doesn't understand Freud." (0:46)

Soldiers share a joint. Francios' wife Simone asks, "What are you smoking colonel?" He replies, "Marijuana" (0:52)

The colonel says, "Marijuana is nothing." Francois argues, "It's the first step. I loathe drug addicts." Raphael responds, "6,000 U.S. Marines were discharged for being drug addicts." The colonel declares, "Marijuana isn't a drug." (0:53)

addict | Bereavement | cannabis | cocaine | complex | Sigmund Freud | joint

Waking Life

A man squats on the sidewalk, pours gasoline over himself and ignites it with a match. (0:20)

An angry inmate refers to, "that sissy psychiatrist." (0:26)

A customer at a bar describes shooting a man who attempted to assault him with a knife: "He must've been on drugs, on speed or something." (0:43)

An older woman on television: "... sorcerers, shamans and other visionaries who have developed and perfected the art of dream travel, the so-called lucid dream state..." (0:46)

A man in a cafe talks about dreams: "So you have these serotonic [sic] neurons that inhibit hallucinations that they themselves are inhibited during REM sleep... things you can't do in a lucid dream." (0:48)

An older man: "To quote Stevenson, suicide carried off many." (1:01)

Walking across a bridge a man says, "Remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting." (1:14)

A man at a pinball machine: "Those are called false awakenings." (1:26)

Compare this film to Paprika.

collective unconscious | dream | lucid dream | REM sleep | suicide

Call Northside 777

Polygraph Examiner Leonarde Keeler tests convict Frank. (0:50)

polygraph

Nights in Rodanthe

Spoiler alert!

Innkeeper Jean asks her friend Adrienne, referring to her ex-husband, "Where was Jack when your father died?" (0:09)

His deceased patient's husband Robert confronts Paul, the surgeon who was operating on her when she died: "My wife is dead." (0:48)

Paul's son Mark informs Adrienne that his father is dead. (1:20)

Bereavement

Read the book by Nicholas Sparks:

Pressure Point

A young psychiatrist walks down the hall of what appears to be a psychiatric hospital and enters the office of an older African-American psychiatrist who appears to be his superior. (0:01)

In his prison office the African-American psychiatrist, much earlier in his life, meets his patient, a Caucasian inmate "17431." (0:05)

The psychiatrist tells inmate 17431, "Shouldn't be too difficult to get you committed when your sentence expires... Should be easy to get a couple of my colleagues, a couple of Jew psychiatrists, to certify you as insane." (0:07)

The psychiatrist thinks to himself, "Everything about the man... repelled me... I decided he was a psychopathic personality... paranoid, aggressive, antisocial." (0:11)

Inmate 17431 appears to hallucinate a miniature of himself climbing out of the drain of the sink in his cell. (0:13)

Inmate 17431 tells the chief medical officer, "... I can't sleep... can't you give me some sleeping pills?" (0:15)

We see the chief medical officer's handwritten note: "Possible malingerer to avoid duty. Possibly looking for hideout in hospital." (0:16)

In his office the African-American psychiatrist tells inmate 17431, "... there's nothing organically wrong with you... occasional blackout spells... you find it difficult to fall asleep..."
The inmate, later: "You must be a real masochist."
Psychiatrist, later: "Why can't a negro be a psychiatrist?" (0:16)

The psychiatrist thinks to himself, "After several slow and extremely difficult months of analysis there finally came a knowledge..." (0:21)

Inmate 17431 as a child physically abused by his father. (0:22)

The psychiatrist tells the chief medical officer, "I've worked with guys who are sadistic killers who are more human than this guy." (0:39)

The psychiatrist thinks to himself, "... for although psychopaths are a small minority... a psychopath is the leader." (0:58)

The psychiatrist makes an interpretation: "I represented your father... I represented authority..." (1:18)

The chief medical officer seeks confirmation from the psychiatrist: "... you want him to continue with analysis." (1:22)

Inmate 17431 appears to have learned some psychotherapy interventions himself when he challenges the psychiatrist, "I'm not just one person to you, am I? I'm a symbol, a symbol of everything you fear will destroy you." (1:24)

We never hear the inmate ask the psychiatrist how he might expect all this talk to help his insomnia, his presenting chief complaint. One can easily imagine the inmate simply preferring the psychiatrist's office, and even his company, over his cell. One can hardly imagine this encounter taking place at all outside a prison. Consistent with psychoanalytic approaches as well as some other psychotherapies, neither party seems to mind that there is no overt treatment contract, or that while the psychiatrist seems intent on making the patient less hateful and bigotted, perhaps, if he gave it any thought, the inmate might want help to become a better or more effective nazi. Also consistent with psychoanalytic approaches as well as some other psychotherapies, the psychiatrist seems to believe that enough "analysis" can correct any human trait he himself deems objectionable, regardless of the patient's agenda.

How well does the psychiatrist handle his feelings (Gabbard, in his Psychiatry and the Cinema, predictably refers to these feelings as "countertransference feelings" even though the treatment hardly conforms to psychoanalytic parameters.) toward this man who openly hates him? How likely is it that psychotherapy, even with a psychotherapist of the same race and gender as this patient, could have altered his sociopathic traits, much less his bigotted attitudes, especially since that does not seem to be the kind of help the patient wants? The inmate's portrayal as a nazi bigot seems inconsistent with his apparent ability to trust the psychiatrist enough to allow some vulnerability. Is it all an act?

hallucination | hypnotic | interpretation | Physical Abuse of Child | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | psychopath | psychopathy | psychotherapy

Puccini for Beginners

Psychoanalytic jargon pervades language, especially in New York City.

Samantha, announcing that she wants to break up with her romantic partner, writer Allegra, tells her, "You know what your problem is? You're conflicted." (0:07)

At a party Allegra meets philosophy student Philip in a rooftop garden. She tells him how she feels about the view, "Makes me want to jump." (0:11)

Philip tells Allegra, "Freud said there are no coincidences." (0:21)

Allegra tells Samantha, "Commit. That's what they do when you go to an insane asylum." (0:27)

Editor Nell, Allegra's former romantic partner pontificates, "Being alone you're bound to confront all those hideous issues that get sublimated when you're in a relationship." Allegra responds, "I always act them out." (0:29)

Allegra tells Philip, explaining why she's attracted to him, "I'm sure there's a perfectly good psychoanalytic reason for it." (0:30)

Philip's wife Grace tells Allegra, "I'm having a nervous breakdown." (0:32)

Nell analyzes Allegra, "... you found Grace onto whom you could project your conflict." (0:44)

acting out | conflict | Sigmund Freud | sublimation | suicide

Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World)

Court viola da gamba master Marin interrupts a lesson to tell his story, "Madame de Sainte Colombe died... He couldn't get over his wife's death." (0:07)

Bereaved viola da gamba master Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, in a dream, walks into the pond to drown himself. (0:31)

Monsieur de Sainte Colombe sees visions of his deceased wife. (0:45, 1:05, 1:12)

Monsieur de Sainte Colombe's daughter Madeleine removes the ribbons from a pair of shoes given her by her lover Marin and ties them into a noose around her neck. Standing on a stool she ties the other end to the canopy frame of her bed. She kicks the stool out of the way and hangs herself. (1:28)

Bereavement | hallucination | suicide

Elephant Walk

Dr. Pereira tells Ruth, referring to her husband, tea planter John, "I have given your husband a strong sedative." (0:47)

sedative

Terribly Happy

Spoiler alert!

In the bathroom of his new home marshall Robert takes an unidentified medication, looks at himself in the mirror, then dumps the rest of the bottle in the toilet. (0:06)

Dr. Zerleng tells Robert, "I thought you might need some more pills, just to settle down." (0:13)

Town bully Jørgen tells Robert, referring to his wife Ingerlise, "She hasn't been right in the head since she had Dorthe." (0:18)

Jørgen strikes his son Knud hard on the head. (0:19)

Dr. Zerleng tells Robert, referring to Ingerlise, "I've given her a sedative." (0:27)

Robert asks Dr. Zerleng, who is holding a syringe, "Do you have any more of those pills?" (0:40)

Dr. Zerleng tells Robert, "I prescribed Ingerlise a lot of medicine." He hands Robert a prescription bottle bearing her name and says, "She's been in Tønder Hospital before with an overdose." (0:52)

Funeral for Ingerlise. (0:56)

Robert tells Jørgen, "The quack's got some pills that'll see you through this." (1:12)

Jørgen asks Robert, "Are you still popping pills?" (1:14)

Both drunk, Jørgen tells Robert, "You were sent to the nut house. Three months with unsteady nerves." (1:17)

The police chief asks Robert, referring to Jørgen, "Did he seem depressed?" (1:28)

The police chief tells Robert, "but if we say Jørgen Buhl killed himself, and call it suicide, we'll close the case there." (1:31)

Bereavement | Physical Abuse of Child | sedative | suicide

Very Young Girls

Dominique talks about home: "We fought a lot in the house, a lot of violence in my house, fist fights." (0:10)

An unidentified girl snorts white powder cocaine (?) from foil with a straw. (0:14)

Group psychotherapy at GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services) (0:27, 0:29, 0:43, 0:46, 1:10)

GEMS founder Rachel Lloyd talks about herself and the beginning of Girls Educational & Mentoring Services: "I was suicidal. I was self mutilating a lot." (0:28)

Rachel talks about the lack of a cure for prostitution, comparing it to addiction: "There's no detox. There's no methadone." (0:48)

Carolina: "Truth is, I relapsed." (0:52)

Shaquanna in hospital with facial injuries: "The last thing... beat with a piece of wood which I had to block out. I thank God I don't remember what happened 'cause I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night." (0:55)

Rachel: "I might as well just kill myself..." (1:03)

cocaine | group psychotherapy | Physical Abuse of Child | Sexual Abuse of Child | suicide

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Wealthy industrialist Henrik tells reporter Mikael, "Martin's and Harriet's father Gottfried led a miserable life as an alcoholic with Isabella." (0:30)

Police detective Morell tells Mikael, "You'll only breathe life into Henrik's obsession." (0:36)

Her corrupt guardian Bjurman warns Lisbeth, "Then we'll see how quick you're back in the psychiatric ward." (0:49)

Lisbeth tattoos Bjurman with the words, "I am a sadistic pig and a rapist." (1:03)

Lisbeth experiences a flashback nightmare of setting fire to her abuser. (1:19)

Martin injects Mikael with an unidentified drug. (1:47)

Harriet tells her uncle Henrik, "I was 14 when Dad raped me for the first time." (2:11)

A television commentator says of the death of wealthy industrialist Wennerström, "According to the police it was suicide." (2:18)

Sexual Abuse of Child | suicide

Read the book by Stieg Larsson:

The Illustrated Man

Spoiler alert!

Father Carl asks counselor Will, "Listen how long have you been our mental-health counselor?" (0:33)

Carl's wife Felicia tells her son, "Johnny, tomorrow Dr. Will is coming to take us to a therapy refuge for a vacation." (0:41)

The colonel tells crewman Simmons, "Keep talking. It's a conveniant way to commit suicide." (1:01)

Crewman Pickard drowns himself in the deluge. (1:07)

Off camera we hear William kill himself with his laser. (1:12)

The world has not ended despite the predictions. When Felicia awakens and realizes this, she also notices her husband Carl does not lie next to her in their bed. She goes to the children's room where despairing Carl sits on the floor between their dead children's beds. He had euthanized them to spare them the experience of the predicted end. (1:29)

Bereavement | counselor | suicide

Read the book by Ray Bradbury:

Control

Spoiler alert!

Joy Division singer and songwriter Ian removes a prescription bottle from his friend Nick's medicine cabinet. The label is obscured, but he later reads to Nick from a book that "serazepan" (?) is "usually prescribed for schizophrenia. Side effects include..." (0:06)

After Ian suffers a grand mal seizure his doctor discharges him from the hospital. He tells Ian, "We'll try you on carbamazepine, phenytoin, tiagabine, and oxcarbazepine, to be taken with the phenobarbital that they gave you in the hospital." When Ian asks him, "Are there any side effects?" The doctor reads off a list. (0:39)

Ian's wife Debbie calls an ambulance after he drinks and passes out. Emergency room staff administer charcoal for an apparent overdose. (1:26)

Lead guitarist Bernard tells Ian, "I've been studying hypnosis." (1:37)

Ian awakens at home after a seizure and after ordering Debbie out of their home, knowing that she plans to go through with divorce. He hangs himself from a drying rack in the kitchen (off camera). (1:52)

carbamazepine | hypnosis | overdose | oxcarbazepine | phenobarbital | phenytoin | side effects | suicide | tiagabine

Read the book by Deborah Curtis:

Provoked

Abusive husband Deepak, jealous about her interaction with his friend, hits his wife Kiranjit. (0:32)

Kiranjit learns that her husband has died of burns she inflicted. She participates in a brief ceremony in jail. (0:36)

Inmate Jackie tells Kiranjit she is incarcerated because, "I have a bit of a substance abuse problem." Kiranjit's cellmate Veronica explains she "bought some crystal meth." (0:53)

Kiranjit dreams about intoxicated Deepak coming home drunk and raping her. Might this be a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder? If she suffers from that disorder, might it more likely have resulted from the years of abuse by Deepak or from the trauma of burning him? (1:02)

A sign outside a door reads "Dr. S. Manning, Psychologist." Dr. Manning recommends, "Follow up on the prison psychiatrist's report... mentions endogenous depression." (1:24)

Kiranjit discovers Veronica locked in a toilet stall and bleeding from her wrists after she has tried to kill herself. The doctor says, "She'll be confined to the ward... under suicide watch..." (1:28)

During the hearing for Kiranjit's appeal Lord Edward Foster raises new issues in her defense, including "battered woman's syndrome," "learned helplessness," and psychiatric reports describing diminished mental responsibility. (1:38)

While dining at a restaurant advocate Radha tells solicitor Anil about her own sister's abuse by her husband, culminating when, "One day she just killed herself." (1:40)

Bereavement | Physical Abuse of Adult | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | psychologist | suicide

A Girl Cut in Two

After winning a book at auction writer Charles tells weather girl Gabrielle of the author, "He was a fabulous erotomaniac." (0:33)

Charles responds to his wife Dona, referring to Playboy Paul and, "The impertinence of an inferiority complex." (0:52)

Gabrielle's mother Marie tells her brother Denis, referring to depressed Gabrielle, "She just lies there." When he asks whether she has seen a doctor, Marie replies, "He says that if she keeps it up he'll hospitalized her."
Denis: "What do you think she wants?"
Marie: "I think she wants to die." (1:07)

Paul, upset with Gabrielle because she seems unable to forget Charles, pulls a pistol to his head and pulls the trigger, but the firearm fails to discharge. (1:27)

inferiority complex | suicide

Smiles of a Summer Night

Divinity student Henrik tells his father, attorney Fredrik, "I'm so terribly unhappy." (0:15)

Countess Charlotte complains to Fredrik's wife Anne about Count Malcolm: "He comes to me at night, driving me insane with his caresses." (1:04)

Henrik is distraught at dinner. (1:21)

Anne pleads with Henrik, "Henrik, you mustn't hurt yourself." (1:22)

Henrik, sitting alone playing the piano, says, "Why am I so ugly, so mean, so stupid? The only right thing would be suicide. Yes, that's it. I shall die. Pass away with quiet dignity." (1:26)

Henrik winds a cord around his neck, ties a noose, fastens the other end above, and steps off the edge of the stove. (1:28)

insane | suicide

The Horseman on the Roof

Having joined noblewoman Pauline in a prison-like quarantine for cholera, Italian expatriate Angelo looks down from the window, hoping to find an escape route. Pauline tells him, contemplating suicide in her despair, believing she will never find her husband even if she survives the epidemic, "Before you came, I looked down. I thought: It's so easy to die. So brief. You just slip away." (1:26)

suicide

Hopscotch

At CIA headquarters agent Meyerson tells agent Joe, referring to rogue agent Kendig, "It's his f***ing suicide note." Joe replies, "I don't think he's suicidal." (0:30)

Joe, talking to Kendig on the telephone, pleads for him to show mercy, otherwise, "I'm gonna be tortured by this for the rest of my life. All my money'll go to a psychiatrist." (0:33)

As CIA and FBI agents close in on Kendig at Meyerson's cottage strains from the suicide scene of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly emanate from Meyerson's record player.

suicidal | suicide

Thumbsucker

Spoiler alert!

Orthodontist Perry asks his patient, "Justin, do they teach you about the subconscious at school?" (0:05)

Perry asks Justin, "Tension at home? Anxiety? Any bad memories?" When Justin asks him what he wants to do, Perry replies, "I want to try hypnosis." (0:21)

In a telephone call Perry tells Justin, "Your subconscious has taken its course." (0:27)

At a meeting with Justin, his parents, and the debate team coach, principal Mrs. Wood asks Justin whether he has suspected he might be different and recites a series of items, apparently from an ADHD inventory: "not as patient, can't finish what you started, terrified of being left alone but angry when you feel crowded?"
Justin: "A little."
Mrs. Wood: "It's classic hyperactive teen, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. We'd like you to think about a stimulant drug treatment for Justin."
Justin's mother Audrey: "You mean like Ritalin?"
Mrs. Wood: "It's one of the many drugs a doctor could prescribe. There's Adderall, clonidine, Tenex"
Audrey, a nurse herself, reading a brochure, is skeptical: "Excuse me, these symptoms they have here, they're pretty vague... ignores information, makes mistakes, seems restless, avoidance, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in, work that requires sustained mental effort."
(0:29)

After the meeting Justin tells his parents, hopeful about medication, "I can't focus on anything." We see Audrey examine a prescription bottle, apparently labeled "Amzopax." Justin washes down a tablet with orange juice. Graphics apparently intended to represent three different drug molecules drift across the screen. Justin reads Moby Dick, apparently in record time. He awakens his brother Joel to tell him, "I changed... I never thought that I would feel so clear." In class the next day he quickly volunteers to answer the English teacher's question about the novel. (0:32)

Justin taking pills. (0:36, 0:47, 0:48, 0:53)

Rows of prescription bottles in a medicine cabinet at school. (0:39, 0:40, 0:41)

Television commentator: "TV star Matt Schramm checked in to drug rehab today... thousand dollar a day cocaine habit." (0:42)

Debate team coach Mr. Geary, apparently aware of the risks of interaction, cautions Justin, as he hands him a sixpack of beer, "One of these is going to go a long way with the pills you're on." (0:43)

At home, Audrey announces to the family, "I'm being transferred to the Maple Glen facility." Justin replies, "The celebrity rehab place." When Joel asks her which celebrities she might have encountered, she replies, "You know, I signed an agreement. I'm not supposed to leak names." (0:46)

Justin bends the truth more than a little in his application for admission to New York University: "Both my parents suffer from mental illness." (0:49)

Justin encounters Perry at a store. Perry tells him, "I was lost in a cloud of hippie psycho babble." Later in the conversation Perry asks him about his parents. Justin tells him his mother "got a new job working with drug addicts." When Perry asks him about his thumb sucking problem, embarrassing him in front of the store clerk, he tells him, "Actually, I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. It's a real problem. Now I'm on medication." (0:51)

An opposing debater finds Justin taking his medication in the men's room. He says, "You know this stuff's just speed right." Justin counters, "It calms me down." The other debater tells him it is only "three molecules different than cocaine... teachers are over medicating today's kids... whatever, speed freak." (0:53)

Mr. Geary meets with Justin: "It's my professional opinion that you've become a monster... Don't get grandiose with this." (0:55)

Justin tells Audrey he has stopped taking his pills. "They're just speed. They're just three molecules different than cocaine" (0:57)

Justin asks his girlfriend Rebecca Rebecca, "Do you have any pot?"
Rebecca: "Do you want me to get you high?" (1:00)

After meeting at a construction site just in asks Rebecca, "Are you stoned?" Rebecca asks Justin: "You still want some right?" and lights his bong. Another girl shares her joint with him. (1:01)

At home in the kitchen Justin finds a book belonging to his mother, "One Year in Recovery" (1:03)

Justin and Rebecca share a bong. (1:04, 1:06, 1:10)

Visiting Maple Glen (rehabilitation center) after hours Justin encounters patient Matt Schramm outdoors. He tells Justin, "I'm Matt and I'm an addict." (1:15)

Justin talks to Joel about his own problems and the family. Joel, sensing reciprocity in their relationship, asks his brother, "You ever think maybe you're so busy being weird that I have to step up and be normal?" (1:21)

We start with an anxious kid, understandable in terms of some vaguely portrayed systemic marital/parental dysfunction. His orthodontist uses hypnosis to stop the thumb-sucking that kept the anxiety at bay. When his behaviors start getting him in trouble the school principal practically diagnoses ADHD. Getting a prescriber to buy into the diagnosis and dole out the drug apparently happens so readily that devoting screen time to the process would be gratuitous. The kid's functioning magically improves with medication. Does that confirm the diagnosis, or would speed make any kid start to excel in school? Then he takes a dive. Did this result from too much of the wrong drug? What role does marijuana use play? Finally off the drug, he seems to put it all together.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder | cannabis | confidentiality | hypnosis | interaction | joint | psychostimulant | reciprocity | rehabilitation

Read the book by Walter Kirn:

The Lady Eve

Wealthy amateur ophiologist and brewery heir Charles makes fun of his bodyguard Muggsy for his suspicious nature: "and the guy you poked for trying to slip you a Mickey only he was taking aspirin." (0:25)

chloral hydrate

Cleo from 5 to 7

Singer Florence asks her assistant Angèle, whether her fear of death from cancer is "written on my face?... If it is I'll kill myself. I might as well be dead already." Angèle thinks to herself about Florence "and her hysterics." (0:07)

When Florence accepts the waiter's offer of coffee, Angèle protests, "Coffee will make you more agitated." (0:08)

While trying on a new hat and looking at herself in a mirror Florence thinks to herself, "Trying things on intoxicates me." (0:13) [This dialog comes from English subtitles translated from French, but here intoxication appears to represent euphoria metaphorically.]

Unable to stop thinking about the possibility that she will learn that she will die of cancer the distinction between and obsession and worry seems blurred.

caffeine | euphoria | obsession | suicide

Methadonia

#methadonia

The realities of methadone maintenance therapy.

Methadone user Bill describes the typical pattern of escalation of drug use in pursuit of the high. He says it starts with heroin then progresses to speedballing (combining cocaine with heroin), then to escalating doses of methadone, and finally, addition of benzodiazepines to methadone. (0:00)

Methadone user Steve talks while intermittently nodding on the street. (0:04)

The narrator talks about his wife's sister Kathy: "She was totally focused on the drug. Nothing else mattered, and nothing seemed capable of stopping her from using until the overdose that killed her." (0:05)

Millie, herself a recovering addict, leads a counseling group. (0:07)

Millie talks about "28 years of... dope, conning people, being sick... " Later, in the street, Millie talks more about herself : "I'd smoke the crack. I'd have to take the heroin to bring me down... out of my mind... get more money to do the crack again... heroin brought me down. Then shooting the dragon, I was smoking in the crack pipe also heroin and the crack, chasing the dragon... in shooting galleries... you don't care." (0:09)

The group huddles for the serenity prayer. (0:11)

Narrator: "Addiction specialists call this opiate replacement therapy." (0:12)

Animation illustrates molecular occupation of receptors and antagonism. (0:13)

Bill lists different slang names for the drug. (0:14)

Bill talks about what it takes to stop using methadone: "It takes a sponsor..." (0:15)

Narrator: "In the 1960s pill habits meant amphetamines and barbiturates, but today the more common pill addictions are to benzodiazepines, a class of anti-anxiety drugs. In methadonia they're called sticks, benzos and footballs. You take a couple of them after a dose of methadone and the high is almost as good as a bag of heroin." (0:16)

Methadone user George has been prescribed "Klonopin for anxiety, Paxil for depression and another drug with a name he can't remember for the voices he occasionally hears. (0:18)

Methadone user Susie had to get off of Vicodin and was smoking crack, but she also suffered from bulimia. (0:20)

Susie in group: "I'm down to half a stick of Xanax a day." (0:22)

Eddie talks about his "six ODs... they want you to go through the withdrawals cold turkey with restraints on." He goes on to talk about Billie Holiday, heroin, and how "they made you kick in a straitjacket... in a rubber room." and"They just give me Narcon [sic]." (0:25)

Narrator: "Valium was the first popular benzo. Today in methadonia the benzos of choice seem to be Xanax and Klonopin. They're officially produced for reducing anxiety. Klonopin also prevents seizures... make a perfect chaser for methadone... available everywhere. Doctors prescribe them to addicts in recovery because recovery usually brings insomnia and anxiety. Even when they're taken without methadone addicts say that benzos are as addictive as opiates... can have a double life as a street drug." (0:28)

Methadone user Steve: "I was getting ready to go to the Brooklyn Bridge... I was gonna take all my psych medicine... do two bags [of dope], swallow all my pills... jump off the Brooklyn Bridge... if that don't work I'm going down the subway station and try to find some depressed man... to push me off." (0:30)

Steve: "You're a junkie, stoned out junkie. You're on a methadone." (0:33)

Methadone user Jeff in group: "How do I deal with painful feelings? I usually get high." (0:35)

In group Jeff says, "I hope I find my higher power." (0:38)

Narrator about the baby Susie is expecting: "The sad fact is that Leah is already addicted to benzos and methadone." (0:47)

Narrator: "It's true that German researchers came up with methadone during World War II as a morphine substitute, and they did name their new drug Dolophine..." (0:50)

Narrator: methadone "... detox can be brutal with many of the same symptoms as heroin withdrawal: muscle and bone pain, chills, body cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea." (0:59)

Narrator: Methadone user George has mood swings and "admits that he has been shooting cocaine." (1:05)

Narrator about Mario: "He admitted that he'd been doing up to a dozen benzos a day." (1:08)

Mario: "To kick a benzo habit... compared to heroin. There's nothing to compare... benzos getting into your bones, inside your bones and eat you up alive." (1:10)

Millie talks about recovery (1:11)

Steve, detoxing from methadone: "I'm very suicidal right now." (1:15)

Narrator: "Susie's infant daughter Leah detoxed from methadone and benzos before leaving the hospital. It took six weeks." (1:16)

Narrator: George is hospitalized for surgery and an infection. "George is also paranoid and writes notes saying the hospital is trying to kill him by draining his blood." (1:19)

addiction | alprazolam | benzodiazepine | clonazepam | higher power | methadone | methadone maintenance therapy | recovery | replacement therapy | serenity prayer | suicide

Kings of Pastry

Meilleur Ouvrier de France competitor Jacquy explains, "The judges are going to eat sixteen cakes. You serve something heavy with chocolate, it's pretty much suicide." (0:11)

suicide

Mirage

Spoiler alert!

Scientist David fails to recognize Shela. (0:04)

After someone has jumped or fallen to his death from his building, David enters a bar. Another man in the bar says, "There's been a lot of suicide lately." (0:07)

As David rides the subway he sees a New York Post headline that reads "Charles Calvin Apparent Suicide." (0:11)

David watches a television news broadcast in which a reporter asks wealthy peace advocate Calvin's wife, "Did he seem depressed?" (1:19)

David fails to remember a telephone number that was changed almost 2 years earlier. (0:20)

Attempting to file a police report David cannot recall his own telephone number for a detective. (0:23)

Browsing in a bookstore David opens the book to the bibliography page where he sees the name, Broden, Augustus J., M.D., PhD, Clinical Psychiatry. (0:25)

When David enters Dr. Broden's office, Dr. Broden tells him, "You won't find a couch Mr. Stillwell. I'm a consulting psychiatrist, not an analyst." Referring to a colleague he says, "He was a Freudian."
Broden: "What do you want to know?"
David: "Whether or not I'm insane."
Broden: "Insanity is a legal term you understand, not a medical one. If you know the difference between right and wrong the law considers you sane... The only thing that matters in psychiatry Mr. Stillwell is behavior." (0:30)

David acknowledges to Broden that he cannot recall what he was doing two years ago. (0:33)

When Broden orders David out of his office bewildered David asks, "What is this, some sort of a new shock treatment?"
Broden: "There is no such thing as the sort of amnesia you describe... Unconscious amnesia can exist for an hour or two... two years. Impossible... You invent amnesia... trick the police..." (0:34)

David tells Detective Ted, "If I want a psychiatrist, I'll get one with a diploma." (1:05)

Back in Dr. Broden's office David asks him, "What causes amnesia?"
Broden: "A severe shock, Mr. Stillwell... " (1:21)

David discusses Calvin's death and funeral with the widow. (1:28)

David recalls witnessing Calvin accidentally falling out of his office window. (1:42)

Executive Crawford tells David's friend Josephson, "David's intent on committing suicide." (1:45)

amnesia | Bereavement | cognitive arm | Dissociative Amnesia | insane | psychiatrist | suicide

On the Rumba River

A Congolese mother talks about the loss of her husband and child. (0:43)

Bereavement

Judgment at Nuremberg

Defense attorney Rolfe cross-examines witness Petersen:
Rolfe: "In the decision that came down from Stuttgart it is stated that your mother suffered from hereditary feeblemindedness."
"Mr. Petersen, there was a simple test that the health court used to ask in all cases of mental incompetence."
Petersen to the judge: "I want that you tell me, was she feebleminded? (1:06)

Capt. Byers tells judge Haywood about the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, "It's rumored Masaryk committed suicide." (1:19)

Prosecuting Atty. Lawson narrates for the court films from German prison camps: "Sometimes mercy was shown to the children. They were injected with morphia so they'd be unconscious when hanged." (1:52)

Mental Retardation | morphine | suicide

Read Abby Mann's Judgment at Nuremberg based on the Broadway play adapted from the original television drama that formed the basis for the film.