Mental health awareness is an essential component in today’s world. It is trending nowadays, although few people have learned about the field of Psychology. People usually Google psychology-related terms and browse definitions randomly from untrustworthy sources. It leads to misinformation and can harm us because of an incorrect diagnosis – especially when one self-diagnoses themselves. At such times, half-knowledge can affect the strata of mental health illnesses.
The field of psychology is vast, spanning decades, and, as you may expect, it can take some time to study it. Thankfully, there are ways for regular people like us to gain a bit more insight into it. Here are 5 movies that allow us to gain a psychological perspective as well as vital knowledge in the form of recreation.
A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind is a movie released in 2001 that featured Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. It is a real-life story of the renowned mathematician John Nash, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, a mental illness where one starts experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. While working through his usual life, he experiences delusions when a secret agent from the government appoints him to become a code-breaker for them, as well as an imaginary roommate, Charles Parcher, who has a young niece, Marcee.
These delusions quickly come in between him and his life, and he works tirelessly for the secret agent, thinking his life depends on it. Nash has to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital as things get worse. Although, he gets treated successfully. He faces countless ups and downs with the treatment, yet it doesn’t keep him away from coming back to normalcy.
Brain on Fire
Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Brain on Fire is a real-life story about the American journalist Susannah Cahalan. Susannah is diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder that slowly turns her life into a living nightmare. Multiple psychologists and psychiatrists diagnose her incorrectly. Yet only one neurosurgeon, Doctor Souhel Najjar, an American-Syrian, empathises with her. He cures her rare disease and supports her and her family throughout the process.
We get the impression that despite having gone through multiple diagnoses, her illness doesn’t seem to find an end until Doctor Souhel works into the depths of the matter. In the end, our empathy towards the suffering ones. Be patient with them through the process and avoid making them feel less. The movie is an adaptation of Susannah’s book, Brain on fire: My month of madness.
Gone Girl
A modern life marriage, with perfection on both sides, doesn’t last forever, as portrayed in the movie Gone Girl. On the couple’s 5th marriage anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy Dunne disappears mysteriously. All the suspicions are raised towards Nick. Amy Dunne finds out about her husband’s extra-marital affair and plots a trap to give him a taste of his medicine.
This movie showcases how a woman with an anti-social personality disorder/a psychopath takes control of her husband after unearthing her husband’s infidel nature. It teaches us that loving someone solely or the opposite has its outcomes. Gone Girl is yet another movie adaptation of the book written by Gillian Flynn.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Flying over a cuckoo’s nest is a way of assuming one as a crazy person after a series of events. Here, the protagonist Randle Mcmurphy, who is sensible initially, becomes conflicted at the end of the movie. Based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. Starring Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, who pretends to be mentally unstable to avoid labour and jail.
When admitted into a psych ward, he meets a cold, authoritarian nurse named Ratched, who has a firm hold on her patients. There, he ensues chaos and ends up in shock therapy. The movie enlightens us about the true nature of how we view mental illnesses. There isn’t just one way to treat humans with mental illnesses. Each human has a unique way of receiving love and care.
Memento
Featuring Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, this movie is about a man who struggles with anterograde amnesia, followed by memory loss and an inability to create new memories. In Memento, an insurance investigator embarks on a journey to find a killer who he suspects to have taken his wife’s life.
Leonard Shelby endures interrogating amnesia, curbing short-term memory loss and the inability to form new memories. Will he find his wife’s killer, despite his drawback with short-term memory loss? The answer lies in the movie.
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