Pictures of Madness

As a medium that aims to connect people through the communication and interpretation of experiences, cinema is uniquely positioned to showcase cultural misunderstandings around issues of mental health. Frames of Minds traces a history of psychiatry in film, concentrating on the major paradigm shifts in neuropsychiatry over the last century. Oftentimes, representations of psychiatry, mental illness, and psychotic breakdown are reduced to tropes and used by filmmakers as a tool for plot progression. Conversely, films can be used as an avenue to voice common concerns about the missteps of psychiatry, including overdiagnosis and mistreatment. Dr. Eelco Wijdicks provides fresh insights into the minds of filmmakers and how they creatively tackle this complex topic. How do filmmakers use psychiatry, and what do they want us to see? What is their frame of mind--psychoanalytically, biologically, sociologically, anthropologically? Were they influenced by their own prejudices about the origins of mental illness? How does this influence the direction of their films?

Examining the history of film alongside developments in neuropsychiatry, Frames of Minds uncovers a cinematic language of psychiatry. By taking chances to portray mental illness, filmmakers aim to achieve a sense of reality, and provide catharsis for viewers through the act of dramatization. Ultimately, the history of psychiatry in film is a history of the public perception of medicine, and the ways psychiatry is understood by directors, writers, actors, and audiences.

Eelco F.M. Wijdicks, MD, PhD is Professor of Neurology at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. In 1992, he established the Mayo Clinic Neurocritical Care Program. He was the founding editor of NeurocriticalCare, the official journal of the Neurocritical Care Society and has been named Honorary Member of the Neurocritical Care Society. He originated the FOUR SCORE coma scale and has over 1000 research papers, practice guidelines, topic reviews, book chapters, and editorials to his credit, as well as having single-authored, co-authored, and edited 35 books on neurocritical care. Dr. Wijdicksis also an attending neurointensivist in the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit at Saint Marys Hospital, Rochester, MN, and is a Professor of the History of Medicine. He is the recipient of the Dutch Winkler medal, the Karis Award, and the Distinguished Educator Award.

Dr. Wijdicks has studied medical representation in cinema and written scholarly film reviews for medical journals and has published on the interface between psychiatry and neurology. This book is part of a series on medicine in film and includes Cinema, MD, Neurocinema, and Neurocinema: The Sequel.