Passion Fish

#passionfish

A nurse checks patient Mary-Alice for orientation: "Do you know where you are?"
"Do you know who you are?"
Mary-Alice: "She's the woman with the amnesia, not me."
Nurse: "He'll give you something to calm you down."
"Sometimes the medication makes it hard to remember." (0:02)

Mary-Alice asks, "Shrink?"
Psychologist Kline: "I'm Dr. Kline."
Mary-Alice: "Shrink?"
Kline: "I'm a psychologist."
Mary-Alice: "I was under analysis for 7 yrs." (0:05)

A nurse tells  Mary-Alice about her biker friend, "cause he was in this psychological drug experiment thing... something went wrong." (0:16)

Precious asks Ti-Marie, "Well, I can empathize, can't I?" (0:46)

Mary-Alice asks "Chantelle, "Do you think I'll need the restraints today." (0:49)

Chantelle confronts Mary-Alice, "You drink too much." (0:52)

Luther tells Mary-Alice, "I just did some more of whatever I was all messed up on, and it just shot me right past it to somewhere else."
Luther: "She finished with her detox?"
"That's good. She keepin' straight." (1:01)

Chantelle asks Mary-Alice, "Do you think you can get through a day without a drink?"
"You have enough problems with your liver and your kidneys."
Mary-Alice: "You're the addict, not me."
Chantelle: "I cleaned up. I finished detox a month ago."
"It was fun living high... then we got to freebasing."
Mary-Alice: "I'm not going to drink today. I might as well go to bed." (1:12)

Chantelle: "First I was in a hospital. No place to score." (1:14)

Mary-Alice looks franticly for liquor.
She tells Chantelle, "When I get stronger, I'll quit drinking."
Chantelle: "Some days I want to get high so bad I can't breathe."
"Cocaine is different." (1:19)

Nina tells Mary-Alice and the other girls, "He has me sit with my eyes closed and free associate... aliens representing our most primal fears."
"I'm in this therapy group of these people who've had these alien physicals... before she came to the therapy group... The lead actor is gone. He's got his shrink appointment." (1:31)

Chantelle, referring to her mother, tells Mary-Alice, "I lost her when I was 14. Diabetes." (1:41)

Mary-Alice tells her physical therapist Louise, referring to Chantelle, "She's been all over me about my drinking." (1:50)

Mary-Alice asks producer Vance, "And I still have amnesia, and I'm pregnant?"
"But I don't recognize his voice because of the amnesia."
Vance: "The impact of the car cured the amnesia."
"So we thought, you've lost the amnesia..." (2:04)

abstinence | alcoholism | amnesia | craving | psychologist

Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Angela Bassett 1992

Passion Fish

The Crying Game

#thecryinggame

IRA terrorist Fergus realizes his "girl" friend Dil is actually a man. (1:04)

Fergus finds Dil drunk. (1:30)

Dil puts the muzzle of the pistol in his mouth as if to kill himself but does not pull the trigger. (1:43)

cross-dressing | suicide | Transvestic Fetishism

Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker 1992

Anvil

#anvilmovie

Drummer Rob: "It's part of my psychoactive therapy sessions, and my doctor says I'm doing well." (0:07)

Lead guitar Lips: "So there's cliffs I can go jump off. That's the easy way." (0:46)

Rob smokes a joint. (1:07)

joint | suicide

Steve 'Lips' Kudlow, Robb Reiner 2009

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

#amanwithin

Writer Burroughs: "Now folks, if you'll just step this way, you're about to witness the complete all American de-anxietized man." (0:00)

Narrator (actor) Peter Weller describes Burroughs "experimenting with new forms of literature as well as drugs." (0:01)

Allen Ginsberg (0:03, 0:10)

Dr Dennis M Dailey, Burroughs' neighbor, "I think probably Freud would think him to be deeply deeply troubled, profoundly mentally ill." (0:06)

Film maker John Waters: "He was a junkie... He wrote poetry about... heroin." (0:06)

Burroughs reads his poem: "Thanks for prohibition and the war against drugs." (0:08)

Waters: "He violated rules of even junkie's worlds." (0:13)

Burroughs biographer Barry Miles: "He spent a lot of time in psychoanalysis trying to find out about these things." (0:22)

Cover of Burroughs' book "Junky"
Burroughs shares a joint: "In Oklahoma they found a tiny little bit of pot down by his right leg." (0:32)

Scholar Regina Weinreich: "His upbringing was middle class but he had a housekeeper who introduced him to opium." (0:33)

Weller: "Well if you got the yagé papers and, he's the only guy I've ever known to take  yagé , which is the absolute sine qua non of hallucinogenic drugs. He's also the guy that Timothy Leary and Baba Ram Dass... had him try psilocybin... take the original CIAs version of LSD, LSD 6, which is like a horse pill of insanity... He was a walking pharmacologist..." (0:33)

Burroughs: "There's a junk gesture that marks the junkie..."
Waters: "Sure he romanticized drug use... Did anybody read Naked Lunch and try heroin? Probably." (0:34)

Poet Amiri Baraka: "And so the whole question of narcotics... the idea there were junkies in America..." (0:34)

Cover of August, 1979 issue of magazine "High Times" featuring an article on "Yagé" by Andrew Weil.
Burroughs' friend James Grauerhaolz: "We're thinking of the difference between alcohol and heroin. Hip people who liked to take dope... score a bag of Dr. Nova... sharie it with the pope of dope." (0:35)

Cooking heroin, "junkies for five blocks going east... scored... they shot up together... William shot up first... never got AIDS." (0:35)

Biographer Victor Bockris: Burroughs "glamourized using heroin... but if you read everything William wrote about heroin it was to warn people to not take it."
Burroughs quote: "Wherever I go and whatever I do I am always in the straight-jacket of junk, unable to move a finger to free myself." and "I want to be rid of junk more than I ever wanted anything."
Weller: "Percodans... "
"What is Percodan? He said, 'It's junk.'... acting Bill Lee and his addictions ... hooked on this... him leveling me with 'It's junk'..." (0:36)

Burroughs talks about "apomorphine... dramatic relief from anxiety... N-ethyltriptamine, alarming disagreeable symptoms, the use of opium and/or derivatives."
Burroughs companion and estate executor James Grauerhaolz: "The legend is that he went to London and kicked it with the apomorphine cure in 1956. The reality is he was chippin' around..."
Burroughs injecting his arm.
"That time it got such a grip on him that the breakthrough there was to enroll in the methadone maintenance program." (0:39)

Burroughs' gun dealer Robert McColl: "I would imagine he got a feedback high out of it in the sense that this is better than shooting heroin." (0:43)

Friend Fred Aldrich(?): "He was also fascinated with the addictive properties of snake venom." (0:44)

Burroughs: "I coulda wound up as an alcoholic academic." (0:47)

Weinreich, referring to Burroughs' wife Joan Vollmer: "They did drugs together... Joan was doing a lot of Benzadrine inhalers, and drinking a lot..." (0:49)

Waters: "I think they were probably drunk or stoned." (0:50)

Poet John Giorno: "drunk and alone he'd talk about... synchronicity... started crying... walking to meet Joan... synchronicity..." (0:52)

Singer Patti Smith: "It's like hypnotizing someone." (0:54)

Giorno: "He loved her... and it was a great tragedy for him." (0:55)

Weller(?):  "after killing his wife... struggled with his heroin addiction." (0:56)

Waters: "They didn't know gay people that did heroin..." (0:58)

Sonic Youth musician: "He built this box called the orgone box... I think Reich's theory was that sitting in there would allow you to gather certain accumulations of orgone energy..." (1:06)

Burroughs, referring to Marlene Dietrich: "Marlene had to cancel all her Australian tour because she was so drunk." (1:11)

Weller: "Billy wrote two books about his struggle with alcohol and drugs... dead of acute alcoholism."
Giorno: "It was deep grief."
Artist musician Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: "He was devastated... 'If I become a junkie and write a book about a drug...'" (1:16)

Musician Grant Hart: "It was an alternative to the heroin scene of the bowery... saved William... if not from drugs..." (1:19)

Woman in the audience to Burroughs: "those monsters are a projection of your own mind." (1:21)

Poet Anne Waldman on Burroughs' reaction to the death of Ginsberg: "I talked to William when Allen died and it was incredibly hard." (1:22)

Burroughs in his coffin. (1:22)

addict | addiction | Bereavement | camisole | drugs | Sigmund Freud | hallucinogenic | heroin | insane | joint | lysergic acid diethylamide | methadone maintenance therapy | narcotic | opium | oxycodone | pharmacologist | projection | psilocybin | psychoanalysis | Wilhelm Reich | synchronicity | Volstead Act

John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant 2010

Elizabethtown

#elizabethtownmovie

Shoe company president Phil asks shoe designer Drew, "How are you Drew?"
Drew: "I wanted to jump out of the window of that helicopter and just splatter on the trees..." (0:06)

Drew prepares a device with which to kill himself and piles his belongings in the alley. A design flaw and a phone call from his sister interupt his suicide attempt. (0:09)

His sister Heather tells Drew, "Dad died... Mom's in total shock." (0:12)

Drew and his cousin Jessie visit the cemetery where they encounter other family and view the plot before attending a church service. Drew views his father's body. He imagines him smiling, touches his hand. The wake follows. (0:27)

Aunt Dora tells Drew, "Let's start with Dickey Conley. He was an alcoholic." (0:34)

Uncle Dale tells Jessie, "You can't be buddies with your own son." (0:38)

Drew's mother Hollie says, "Everybody out here tells me that I should take sedatives..." (0:58)

Flight attendant Claire and Drew shop for an urn then wander in a cemetery. (1:01)

Drew receives his father's ashes. (1:11)

Drew tells Claire, "All I really want is to not be here." (1:23)

Memorial for Drew's father Mitch. (1:26)

The burial. (1:41)

Drew embarks on a road trip plotted by Claire. He spreads the ashes of his father along the way. (1:42)

As he drives Drew talks to Mitch's ashes: "The fact that I want to go home and kill myself is really..." (1:51)

Bereavement | generational boundaries | suicide

Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon 2005

Cabin in the Sky

#cabininthesky

Little Joe appears delirious after suffering a gunshot wound. (0:12)

Joe's wife Petunia believes Joe has died. (0:16)

Bereavement | Delirium

Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne 1943

Love, Actually

#loveactually

Daniel speaks at the funeral service for his deceased wife. (0:15)

Aging rock star Bill refers to himself in a radio interview as "an old ex heroin addict." (0:21)

Daniel tells his sister Karen, referring to his son Sam, "He might be injecting heroin into his eyeballs for all I know."
Daniel cries. (0:27)

Daniel looks at picture of his deceased wife. (0:58)

In a psychiatric ward Ben tells his sister Sarah, "The nurses are trying to kill me." Does he suffer from delusions? (1:17)

Ben and Sarah celebrate Christmas in the psychiatric ward. (1:36)

Writer Jamie tells his Portugues housekeeper Aurelia (in his best Portugese), "I know I seems an insane persons..." (2:04)

Bereavement | delusion | heroin | insane | psychiatric hospital

Bill Nighy, Gregor Fisher, Rory MacGregor, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney 2003

My Favorite Year

#myfavoriteyear

Actor King tells writer Benjy, "Swann better be at every rehearsal sober..." (0:16)

Benjy tries to improve his coworker KC's comic delivery with a psychiatrist joke: "This guy walks into a psychiatrist's office. He has a duck on his head. The psychiatrist says, 'Can I help you?' The duck says, 'Yeah, get this guy off my ass.'"
KC: "This guy walks into a doctor's office."
Benjy: "Psychiatrist."
KC: "This guy walks into a psychiatrist's office wearing a duck..."
"This guy walks into a psychiatrist's office with a duck on his head, and the guy says to the psychiatrist, 'Will you help me because I have a duck on my head?'" (0:43)

Over Benjy's protest alcoholic actor Swann starts drinking heavily. He soon appears drunk, manifesting ataxia. (0:59)

Producer Sy tells Benjy and staff, "Ladies and gentlemen, a scant few seconds ago Alan Swann had a full fledged anxiety attack, an inch away from a complete nervous breakdown..." (1:18)

alcoholic | heavy drinking | nervous breakdown | psychiatrist

Peter O'toole, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna 1982

The Christmas Bunny

#christmasbunny

Social worker Hank tells social worker Tamera that foster child Julia is "Still not talking." (0:02)

Tamera tells foster parents Patti and Scott that Julia's mother got in trouble for "drug possession..." so she "loses custody of the child." (0:06)

Veterinarian Dr. Devoss tells Patti that rabbit rescuer Betsy's daughter Sara has not seen Betsy in almost 20 years. Emotional cutoff? (0:56)

Hank tells Patti, referring to Julia's mom, "Drugs again. Sales this time." (1:19)

custody | emotional cutoff | mutism

Florence Henderson 2010

Up and Down

#upanddown

Immigrant smuggler Lada tells the others in the pawnshop, "Those junkies are nothing but trouble." (0:11)

Security guard Franta tells his wife Mila, "The Colonel... gets me drunk." (0:19)

Professor Oto tells his family "I taught civics to Lenin." Has his brain tumor left him delusional with inappropriate affect? (0:46)

Oto's wife Vera asks Oto's lover Hanka for a contribution to help her, "Something for sleeping pills." (0:52)

Vera describes her unhappy situation: "That's what I call masochism." (0:54)

Vera describes her refusal to divorce Oto as "a senile whim." (0:57)

Hanka finds Oto confused and disoriented. (1:16)

Mila tells police the baby's real mother will provide "sleeping pills so they can beg at the train station." (1:36)

addict | Dementia Due to Other General Medical Conditions | disorientation | hypnotic | inappropriate affect

Petr Forman, Emília Vásáryová, Jan Tríska, Jirí Machácek 2004

Memory

#memorymovie

Researcher Taylor addresses his audience: "As a researcher in the field of memory loss I know how daunting it can be to reach results for patients with Alzheimer's syndrome." (0:02)

Taylor tells his physician friend Deepra, "You know I've got a fifty percent chance of having Alzheimer's." (0:03)

Taylor tells Deepra, "I've never seen cancer attack memory centers so selectively." (0:05)

Taylor's friend Max tells Taylor, referring to Taylor's mother Alicia, "How am I gonna move her stuff if I'm drunk." (0:18)

Deepra tells Taylor, "Concussions can cause memory loss, memory regression..." (0:21)

Taylor mentions to his artist friend Stephanie after she asks about his work, "Alzheimer's syndrome." (0:25)

Deepra tells Taylor, "I found traces of melatonin which is only from the pineal gland." (0:26)

Taylor reads, "The pineal gland also creates DMT, the most powerful hallucinogenic known to science. DMT is often attributed to the out-of-body experiences described in near death situations." (0:28)

Deepra tells Taylor, "Maybe the memory sat dormant in your subconscious." (0:35)

Taylor jokes with family friend Carol about Stephanie: "I stalked her." (0:36)

Max tells Stephanie, Taylor and Carol, referring to his deceased wife, Jenny, "I miss her more than life itself." (0:37)

Deepra tells Taylor and Stephanie the results of chemical analysis of the poweder, "We found traces of dimethyltriptamine."
Taylor: "DMT. It's one of the most powerful hallucinogenics known."
Deepra: "It's thought that it might numb the experience of death."
"This powder's lighting up the same primordial areas, stuff dealing with instincts and long-term memories." (0:58)

Taylor picks up a prescription bottle whose label reads, "Antidepressant ... sertraline." (1:02)

We learn Alicia has died. (1:32)

amnesia | antidepressant | Bereavement | Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type | dimethyltryptamine | hallucinogen | instinct | long-term memory | melatonin | memory | sertraline

Billy Zane, Ann Margret, Dennis Hopper, Tricia Helfer 2006

Read the novel by Bennett Davlin:

Possessed

#possessedmovie

Nurse Louise mistakes a stranger for David. Fregoli syndrome? (0:02)

One doctor tells the other, "Take her to psycho."
Sign over door: "PSYCHOPATHIC DEPT." (0:05)

Psychiatrist Craig tells psychiatrist Willard about the cases that day, "One manic, three seniles, six alcoholics, ten schizos."
"Catatonic stupor."
Dr. Willard lists Louise's signs: "catatonic posturing, waxy flexibility of the extremities."
"almost complete mutism."
"We'll try narcosynthesis. Seven and a half grains in 10cc of distilled water."
Dr. Willard injects the drug. Louise emerges from her catatonic state. (0:06)

Louise, apparently hallucinating, says, "Someone's playing Schumann on the piano." (0:12)

Willard tells Craig, "You notice the beginning of the persecution complex... Poor judgment, lack of insight... This is where the psychosis began."
Craig: "Typical schizoid detachment, split personality."
Willard: "obsession with this man" (0:30)

Police find the body of Dean's wife Pauline in the lake. (0:33)

Dean: "She did it deliberately"
Detective: "Do you think it was suicide Ms. Howell?"
Louise: "She had spells of extreme depression." (0:34)

The district attorney asks Dr. Sherman, "Was she depressed? Was Mrs. Graham depressed?" (0:37)
Dr. Sherman: "Yes."
D istrict attorney: "Was she depressed enough to commit suicide?" (0:37)

Pauline's daughter Carol tells Dean, "He said suicide. Why?"
Dean: "I know suicide was mentioned."
Carol: "Why should they talk about suicide? Was mother unhappy enough to kill herself? (0:38)

Carol tells Louise, "She killed herself because of you." (0:41)

Sounds of clocks, rain, and an open window bother Louise. Hyperacusis? (1:03)

After administering the "hanky test" to Louise the doctor observes "extreme suggestibility."
"It's a common symptom of neurasthenia."
Doctor: "It sometimes happens that patient's unable to distinguish between reality and unreality..."
"There is a type of nervous disorder in which that happens."
"He or she lacks insight, the inability to distinguish between what is real and what isn't."
Louise: "You're describing schizophrenia, aren't you?"
"I had no idea it was insanity."
Doctor: "Insanity is not a word we like to use."
"I'm going to give you the name of a psychiatrist: Thornsfield."  (1:09)

Louise tells Dean, "It's Pauline, she wants me to kill myself..."
"Now she's talking to me. 'Kill yourself, Louise. Drown yourself in the lake.'" (1:21)

Louise tells Dean, "I helped her commit suicide"
"I didn't help her kill herself?" (1:23)
Dean tells Louise, "This man is a mental specialist."
Louise: "You want to lock me up, put me away." (1:37)

Louise tells engineer David, "He wants to put me away in an institution... I'm not insane." (1:40)

Dr. Willard tells Dr. Craig, "It was there for any psychiatrist to see... If he shows signs of mental illness." (1:43)

Dr. Willard tells Dean, "Mr. Graham, it's a clear case of psychosis."
Dean: "You mean she's insane."
"Shock follows shock until eventually the mind gives way. The brain loses control, and the body sinks into coma... possessed of devils, and it is the psychiatrist that must cast them out... She was under a great emotional strain the night your first wife killed herself... the delusion she actually helped Pauline commit suicide, and once the initial delusion was established her present condition was almost ineveitable."
Dr. Willard: "Louise is neither mentally nor morally responsible for any of her actions." (1:43)

catatonia | complex | delusion | Fregoli phenomenon | insight | mutism | narcosynthesis | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | schizoid | split personality | suicide

Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey 1947

Stonerville

#stonerville

A man appears to hang himself after he ties noose to something on the ceiling while another man talks to the camera. (0:01)

Brief shots of joints, cooking heroin, shooting, and smoking unidentified drugs in Amsterdam. (0:03)

A man on the street asks, "Heroin. You have heroin?" (0:03)

Video producer Slam smokes marijuana in a glass pipe. (0:05, 0:07, 0:34, 0:47)

Slam's cameraman Harley with a joint. (0:08)

Slam, referring to a professor: "He's known for two things, being drunk and..." (0:14)

Television announcer Rod tells the audience, referring to poker player Caverly who is swallowing pills and surrounded by prescription bottles, he has "quite a hefty drug dependency" and when you lose things you "start doing drugs."
"off the amphetamines now."
Chet describes player Harry: "he's got a series of nervous tics..." (0:18)

A man white powder suggestive of cocaine on his nose. (0:21)

Harley gives a joint to Slam. (0:25)

Frankie Finger sings to convenience store shoppers, "When you're blitzed and stoned..." (0:32)

A clerk at a massage parlor is cross dressed. (0:39)

Repo man, talking to Slam's friend Miranda, refers to Slam as "The Wizard of Weed here..." (0:42)

Slam tells his friend Erica, "My mom thinks it's because I'm a closet transsexual." (1:05)

Golfer Mark wraps a tourniquet around his arm and injects a drug. Chet exclaims, "Not the heroin."
Rod: "He's gone for the heroin Chet." (1:09)

Harley with a joint. (1:10)

Slam and Harley with the glass pipe. (1:13)

Slam tells Erica, "My therapist thinks I'm three people..." (1:14)

cross-dressing | heroin | joint | marijuana | suicide | tic

Patrick O. Cavanaugh, Brian Guest, Pauly Shore 2011

Water for Elephants

#waterforelephants | Facebook | Twitter

Animal trainer Jacob tells circus manager Charlie, "They stuff you so full of drugs you don't care." (0:04)

Jacob views the bodies of his parents after they were killed in a car accident. (0:07)

Jacob asks circus worker Walter, "What the hell did I do last night?" Alcoholic blackout? (0:55)

Jacob tells performer Marlena he "Forgot most of it." (0:57)

Walter tells Camel he (Camel) suffers from "Jake leg."
"Manufacturers started putting this plasticizer in this to get around regulations that Jamaican ginger extract not be sold as booze."
Camel asks Walter, "What the hell am I supposed to drink to stop the shakes? It's prohibition." (1:20)

alcoholic blackout | Bereavement | Volstead Act

Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, Christoph Waltz 2011

Read the novel by Sara Gruen:

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

#seehearevil

Professor Kasuda tells detective Sutherland, "I think I can prove to a judge that both of these men had the mens rea."
Sutherland: "What the hell is the mens rea?"
News stand owner Dave: "Mens rea? How could we have gotten mens rea?"
Dave: "Mens rea... My God! No!" (0:27)

Dave tells the doctor, referring to Wally, "This is called blindness hystericus." (1:14)

hysteria | mens rea

Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Joan Severance, Kevin Spacey 1989

Home for the Holidays

#homefortheholidays

Artist Claudia smokes a joint in her room. (0:19)

Claudia's brother Tommy tells his friend Leo and Cludia, "I mean it's denial, you know..." (0:31)

Tommy tells Claudia, "This is a projection. I'm fine." (0:38)

"Russell tells Claudia, "... and then my parents went and died on me."
"Car wreck, last summer, drunk driver." (0:39))

Tommy asks Claudia and their mother Adele, "What is this, a couple of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown?" (1:01)

Bereavement | denial | joint | nervous breakdown | projection

Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr. 1995

Beautiful People

#beautifulpeoplemovie

Spoiler alert!

After a bystander watches a Croat and a Serb fall out of the door of a bus fighting she says, "It's psychedelics." (0:02)

Griffin's friends Bigsy and Jim share a joint in his room. (0:07)

Griffin's bricklayer friend (Jim?) reveals track marks on his left arm. (0:09)

Male voice on the Higgins' car radio: "He is a junkie Penelope." (0:20)

Griffin finds Jim in the bathroom bleeding from an injection site and nodding. He finds the syringe still contains heroin and injects himself after which he, too, nods. (0:36)

Griffin's mother Felicity finds drug paraphernalia under his bed. She shows it to his father Roger who says, "Heroin." (0:48)

Griffin gives the UN med team heroin, cooks it in a spoon, and injects an injured man before they amputate the man's leg. (0:50)

Roger examines Griffin's paraphernalia. He finds a tourniquet and a spoon. (0:52)

Roger confronts Griffin with his syringe. "This habit is... terrible." (1:02)

Referring to Jerry Higgins, a psychologist tells Jerry's wife Kate, "He's suffering from Bosnia syndrome... It's not as bad as Gulf War syndrome. This one is curable."
"It's an obsession with helping people... You identify with the victim... you become the victim, and the victim becomes you." (1:30)

Immigrant Pero and medical student Portia smoke a joint. (1:30)

Griffin's mother inadvertently insufflates some of Griffin's heroin and becomes intoxicated. (1:33)

An eccentric appearing hypnotist hypnotizes Jerry attempting to make him want to keep his leg. (1:35)

heroin | hypnosis | identification | joint | Opioid Intoxication | psychedelic | psychologist

Faruk Pruti, Thomas Goodridge, Tony Peters (II) 1999

For Colored Girls

#forcoloredgirls | For Colored Girls

Neighbor Gilda tells social worker Kelly, referring to Crystal's Vietnam veteran husband Beau Willie, "Ever since he came back from the war he been crazy, and he drinks like a fish. Came home crazy as hell... beat her to death. (0:11)

Beau Willie tells Crystal, "I'm not an alcoholic." (denial) (0:28)

Beau Willie beats Crystal. (1:00)

Alice tells her daughter Tangie, "She's an alcohol, alcoholic demon." (1:15)

Tangie "I am a deliberate coke head... who could never do without" (1:17)

As Gilda enters her apartment we see evidence she has been hoarding. (1:27)

Crystal scrubs the sidewalk where Carl dropped her son and daughter to their deaths. (1:30)

Brief shots: a pill bottle next to a still hand and forearm on the floor; medics pulling Crystal out of the back of an ambulance, an endotracheal tube protruding from her mouth; Crystal in the emergency room with a nasogastric tube. Together they suggest a suicide attempt by overdose. (1:36)

Gilda finds Crystal grieving in her apartment. (1:48)

Tangie tells the other women, mocking a man, "Baby you know I was high. I'm sorry." (2:01)

alcoholic | Bereavement | denial | hoarding | overdose | Physical Abuse of Adult | suicide

Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Kimberly Elise, Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad 2010

Here Comes the Groom

#herecomesgroom

A doctor labels French orphan Bobby's malaise, "Acute melancholia." (0:25)

melancholia

Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, Franchot Tone 1951

Europa Europa

#europaeuropa

 The family grieves after Nazis murder Solly's sister Bertha. (0:08)

Solly reads: "Religion is the opium of the masses." (0:21)

Jupp tells his comrade in arms Robert "Religion is the opium of the masses." (0:48)

Jupp and his friend Leni happen upon a Jewish cemetery. (1:22)

Jupp imagines he sees his family at dinner. (1:24)

Salek learns the fate of his parents. (1:47)

Bereavement | opium

Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, René Hofschneider 1990

Read Solomon Perel's memoir:

The Son's Room

#thesonsroom

A female patient talks to psychoanalyst Giovanni from the couch. (0:05)

Giovanni talks to a male patient sitting and facing him. (0:05)

A male patient on the couch recounts a dream "full of symbols." (0:06)

A male patient across Giovanni's desk: "I'm scared of becoming a maniac..."
"I'd take a Valium." (0:12)

Patient Oscar on the couch: "Even if I think about suicide and feel that I may well try again... How is it you can live normally, feel good and still consider killing yourself?" (0:14)

Giovanni's daughter Irene tells her friend Matteo, "You've smoked too many joints!"  (0:16)

A male patient's first encounter with Giovanni: "In my opinion, analysts your own age are the worst."
"How long does the therapy last? Who decides when it ends?" (0:19)

A female patient talks from the couch. Giovanni looks bored. (0:24)

A female patient faces Giovanni across his desk: "My previous analyst was much less distant."
"You're the wrong analyst for me."
Giovanni thinks to himself: "The therapy's over. What will she do? Go to another therapist?" (0:28)

Giovanni makes a house call to Oscar who tells him, "I'm sure it's a tumor." (0:33)

Giovanni learns that his son has died in a diving accident. He interrupts his daughter Irene's basketball game to tell her. He embraces her and her mother Paola. They cry. (0:33)

The family chooses a casket then views Andrea's body. Giovanni and Paola kiss Andrea goodby. Irene, referring to the casket lid, asks to "take it off a second" to see him one last time. The coffin is sealed. (0:38)

Paola screams in bed. (0:41)

A male patient on the couch. (0:45)

A male patient across the desk: "I'd taken three tranquilizers so as not to cause trouble." He tells Giovanni about his sexual activity. (0:46)

A female patient, standing, tells Giovanni, "And I finally spoke to him [husband] about my obsessions... I'm scared that if I fight too much I could become schizophrenic, whatever that means."
Giovanni: "It's only natural to feel this anxiety." (0:48)

Oscar on the couch, having discovered that he really does have a tumor, tells Giovanni he cannot tell his mother because "The idea of losing a son would be too much for her." (0:51)

Giovanni replays events in his mind so his son would not have died. (0:51)

Giovanni and Paola speculate on how Andrea died. (0:54)

At her game Irene picks fights. (0:55)

Funeral mass. (0:56)

With Oscar on the couch Giovanni says, "They often say that the patient's psychological attitude is fundamental in curing illness." (0:59)

Giovanni talks to a colleague (Enrico?) about his anger at Oscar, whom he blames for Andrea's death, interfering with treating him. "What would become of his analysis?"  (1:00)

Paola cries in Andrea's room. (1:04)

Giovanni replays events before Anrea's death again  (1:06)

A male patient faces Giovanni. (1:07)

Irene cries in the changing room. (1:08)

A female patient lies on the couch. Giovanni begins to cry when she talks about her love of children and tells her, "Forgive me." (1:10)

Oscar on the couch. (1:11)

Paola calls Andrea's friend Arianna and cries while telling her of his death. (1:14)

Oscar chooses to sit for the session. He tells Giovanni he "won't be coming again." (1:15)

Giovanni tells Paola regarding his practice: "I'm probably not helping them much right now."
"I no longer have any objectivity." (1:20)

A female patient across his desk, Giovanni tells her, "I can refer you to another analyst. To continue your therapy--." He informs her that he plans to close his practice. (1:21)

A male patient with sexual problems explodes when Giovanni tells him he plans to close his practice. He breaks objects in the office. Giovanni holds him as the patient cries. (1:22)

The family laughs together again. (1:34)

Bereavement | boundaries | countertransference | diazepam | Hypochondriasis | magical thinking | psychoanalysis | psychoanalyst | suicide | tranquilizer

Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca 2001

Little Boy Lost

#littleboylost | NetFlix

Mother Superior tells reporter Bill, "He's a retired psychologist." (0:43)

Bill's friend Pierre reads a description of the execution of Bill's wife by the Gestapo. Bill grieves. (1:30)

Bereavement | psychologist

Bing Crosby, Claude Dauphin, Christian Fourcade 1953

Mysterious Creatures

#mysteriouscreatures

Spoiler alert!

Lisa's father Bill arranges bottles of pills on the nightstand. Close up of stacked tablets. (0:01)

Bill and Lisa's mother Wendy in a hospital room discuss the failure of their apparent suicide attempt by overdose. (0:02)

Wendy asks social worker Anne, "Are you still wondering why we tried to finish ourselves off?"
Wendy explains to Anne,  "I'm not allowed to touch any of her things because I'm covered in germs."
She says Lisa has ''been like this" "All her life. She got much worse in her teens. Now she's 32."
Bill: "She's obsessed with shoes, hundreds of them." (0:04)

His lawyer tells Bill, "Well I'll obviously commission psychiatric reports..." (0:06)

A psychiatrist (?) tells Lisa and her parents, "It's clear that she has severe anxiety."
Lisa: "I'm not mad."
"I've noted that Lisa dislikes physical contact, that she has food fads and special routines... difficulty noticing how other people are feeling."
Wendy: "The last doctor we saw said that she had a Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
Psychiatrist: "Yes, I'd agree with that diagnosis, but I think I can be a little more specific."
Lisa: "I'm not autistic, OK. Autistics are stupid, and they can't talk, and they all look like this."
Psychiatrist: "I've told Lisa that I believe she has atypical Asperger's syndrome which is commonly thought of as a mild form of autism... Asperger's patients have a problem with nonverbal communication, with interpreting other people's cues." (0:07)

Lisa asks Wendy, "Do you want me to kill myself?"
Lisa: "I've got no life. I might as well kill myself." (0:10)

Lisa lies in the street screaming "Help me!"
She pounds on the window of a neighbor: "I wish I was dead."
Lisa tells Wendy: "I'm gonna do it. I am. I'm gonna throw myself in the river." (0:13)

Psychiatrist Dr. Yorke tells Lisa, "These papers can authorize your compulsory admission to the hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act." (0:15)

Lisa in the day room of a psychiatric hospital. (0:17)

Psychiatric patients in hospital. (0:20)

Dr. Yorke tells Lisa, "You know the point of the section has been for us to assess whether your behavior problems are caused by mental illness."
Lisa: "But Asperger's isn't a mental illness, is it? It's a mental handicap... I'm just depressed."
Dr. Yorke: "I'm not sure yet about this Asperger's diagnosis. But if you showed any of the physical symptoms associated with clinical depression, I would have prescribed antidepressants."
Lisa: "But I'm not on any medication."
Dr. Yorke: "That's because you're not depressed." (0:21)

Meeting with other staff, Dr. Yorke says, "She dislikes her father because she wants her mother to herself."
Female staff member: "They infantilize her."
"Responding to the boundaries we set in."
Dr. Yorke: "I'm beginning to wonder if her parents have ever set any proper boundaries for her at all." (0:22)

Hospital day room. (0:24)

Family meeting with Dr. Yorke and female staff member:
Bill: "The school phobia... obsession with shoes."
Dr. Yorke tells Bill, "Sometimes definite diagnosis takes time."
Bill: "My diagnosis is that Lisa is insane." (0:29)

Wendy tells Bill, "They're threatening to take me off my lovely morphine today."
Bill: "It's a residential place in North Wales with lots of other autistics..." (0:33)

Lisa's attorney Nicholas tell the tribunal, "Lisa Ainscow is not suffering from mental illness, psychopathic or personality disorder, mental impairment or severe mental impairment."
Tribunal chairman: "Your consultant seems to no longer support the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome."
Dr. Ramesh: "Dr. Yorke's view is that Lisa has some traits of Asperger's, for instance lack of empathy, socially inappropriate behavior, but now he believes she meets the diagnostic criteria for... personality disorder... managing her anxiety."
Nicholas: "I see no evidence before us that she is either mentally ill or a psychopath."
Lisa: "Psychopath. That's a terrible word to hear. 'Lisa's mad.'" (0:36)

Lisa tells Nicholas, "They still say I've got a personality disorder"
"They want to send me to a place in Wales for the retards." (0:38)

Wendy tells Lisa, "We think the best thing is if we all go together."
Bill: "We're going, with or without you."
Wendy: "Lisa, how often have you told me that you wish you were dead?" (0:45)

Wendy reads to Bill from the letter she has written "to the editor": "We realize that we will have to end our lives as there is no help whatsoever."
Bill holds a large bag of pills.
Wendy tells Bill, "The only way I'm going to get rid of Lisa is by getting rid of myself."
They walk together into the surf. (0:48)

From her hospital bed Wendy tells Dr. Rodriguez: "We were supposed to go together." (0:51)

Lisa tells Drs. Ramesh and Yorke, "They can't do empathy, these Asperger's people, but I can. I'm full of empathy." (0:54)

Wendy tells Julie, "I still can't get it into me head that he's gone." (0:55)

Lisa tells social worker Chanelle, referring to Wendy, "It's her who tried to kill herself." (0:55)

Wendy tells Chanelle "Her own mother tried to get her to kill herself.... tried to pursuade her to go with us."
"Which box does she fit in?" (0:57)

Wendy walks into the surf while swallowing pills. (1:03)

Wendy tells Julie about attempting to kill herself with pills and wading into the surf.
"We were supposed to go together."
"I think I've been having some sort of breakdown." (1:05)

How would you diagnose Lisa? What else would you want to know? How much does family emotional process contribute to her predicament? Do you see enmeshment, a perverse triangle, undifferentiated ego mass? How would you plan a systemic approach for this family?

Asperger's Disorder | Autistic Disorder | Bereavement | civil commitment | empathy | infantilism | morphine | obsession | overdose | Pervasive Developmental Disorders | psychiatric hospital | psychiatrist | suicide

Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall, Daryl Fishwick 2007

Is Anybody There?

#anybodythere

A resident in the senior group home says, "If I was like her I'd shut my head in a gas oven." (0:02)

Young Edward finds magician Clarence unconscious in his truck with exhaust piped in through a garden hose. (0:16)

Clarence tells Edward, "If I want to top[?] myself, I can jump out the window.' (0:22)

Clarence opens a brochure entitled "Coping with Bereavement." (0:23)

Edward takes Clarence to a cemetery. (0:27)

Clarence tries to summon his deceased wife by repeating her name in front of a mirror. (0:31)

Wake. (0:45)

Edward's father Steve tells Edward, referring to Clarence, "He's going senile."
Edward: "I know what senile is." (1:09)

Edward takes Clarence to the grave of Clarence's ex-wife Annie. (1:15)

In the car at night Clarence talks to Edward's mother as though she were Annie. (1:20)

Edward touches Clarence's body then listens to an audio recording of the two of them he had made earlier. (1:23)

Bereavement | disorientation | senile dementia | suicide

Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff, Michael Caine 2008

Golden Door

#goldendoor

Rita, talking to Rosa, refers to Pietro as "The deaf mute." (0:05)

A doctor asks Pietro, "Are you blind, deaf or mute? He's not speaking. Is he mute? This one's mute!"
Pietro's father Salvatore: "There's no mute here."
Doctor: "They repatriate the deaf mutes."
"But this cure for mutes is something you have to buy."
Salvatore, referring to the medicine: "He said it's for mutes!"
"He's a mute."
"... this cure for mutes..."
"He said it's for mutes." (0:33)

Officials on Ellis Island test the immigrants for orientation: "What day is it? What month is it?.... (1:15)

Officials test Angelo's intelligence with a puzzle, then test his ability to calculate: "How many legs on a horse?" (1:21)

Officials test Salvatore (1:23), Lucy (1:25), then Pietro (1:28).

Pietro breaks his silence, speaking, apparently for the first time, to Salvatore in order to comply with his grandmother's wish that he qualify to remain in America. (1:50)

mutism | orientation | psychological testing

Filippo Pucillo, Ernesto Mahieux, Ilaria Giorgino 2006

I've Loved You So Long

#lovedyoulong

Spoiler alert!

Young Lys tells her aunt Juliette, "Grandpa's lost his mind and his tongue!" (0:06)

Lys' mom Léa tells Juliette about adoption with "Endless visits from social workers and psychologists!" (0:22)

Léa tells Juliette, referring to their mother, "Four years after Dad died she started to lose her memory... But now she doesn't recognize anybody. When I visit she thinks I'm a nurse or a neighbor sometimes." (0:39)

Teacher Michel tells Juliette, referring to an acquaintance, "When he's sober he's a nice guy." (1:04)

Their mother mistakes Léa for a nurse.
Mom tells Léa, "Who? I don't know you."
"Stop calling me Mom."
She eventually does recognize Juliette, albeit as though she were were still a young girl: "My little Juliette. You're back from school already." (1:23)

Lt. Segral tells Juliette what became of police Capitaine Fauré,  "If that's what you call shooting yourself through the mouth." (1:34)

Juliettetells Léa how she euthanized her six year old son to stop his suffering from a terminal illness. (1:50)

amnesia | aphasia | Bereavement | disorientation | suicide

Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein 2008