Mental illness in film

See also: List of films featuring mental disorders

Mental illness has appeared frequently as a major theme or background element in film.

Examples

Antisocial personality disorder

Cape Fear (1962)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Halloween (1978)
Scum (1979)
Small Sacrifices (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Seven (1995)
Fargo (1996)
Primal Fear (1996)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
American Psycho (2000)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
Shrek (2001)
Dahmer (2002)
Gacy (2003)
Monster (2003)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Orphan (2009)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Stoker (2013)

Asperger syndrome

Ben X (2007)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Adam (2009)
Mary and Max (2009)
Temple Grandin (2010)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)
Snow Cake (2006)

Autism

Rain Man (1988)
Mercury Rising (1998)
Molly (1999)
Mozart and the Whale (2005)
Ben X (2007)
The Black Balloon (2008)
Dear John (2010)
My Name Is Khan (2010)

Bipolar disorder

Mr. Jones (1993)
Running with Scissors (2006)
The Hours (2002)
Shutter Island (2010)
3 (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Borderline personality disorder

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Carrie (1976)
Mommie Dearest (1981)
Betty Blue (1986)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Single White Female (1992)
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1993)
Mad Love (1995)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Fear (1996)
Malicious (1996)
Cruel Intentions (1999)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
American Psycho (2000)
Dahmer (2002)
One Hour Photo (2002)
Swimfan (2002)
Monster (2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Borderline (2008)
Scream 4 (2011)
Shame (2011)
Blue Jasmine (2013)

Dementia

Still Alice (2014; Alzheimer's Disease)

Depression

The Wrong Man (1957)
Dead Ringers (1988)
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Gods and Monsters (1998)
What Dreams May Come (1998)
Prozac Nation (2001)
Sylvia (2003)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Antichrist (2009)
Winter's Bone (2010)
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
Melancholia (2011)
Nymphomaniac (2013)
Two Days, One Night (2014)

Dissociative identity disorder

Lizzie (1957)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
Psycho (1960)
David and Lisa (1962)
Persona (1966)
Sybil (1976)
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
The Fisher King (1991)
Manichitrathazhu (1993)
Primal Fear (1996)
Psycho (1998)
Fight Club (1999)
Me, Myself and Irene (2000)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Identity (2003)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Hide and Seek (2005)
Chandramukhi (2005)
Anniyan (2005)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
The Uninvited (2009)
My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)
Peacock (2010)
Shutter Island (2010)
Sucker Punch (2011)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Histrionic personality disorder

Malingering

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
The Score (2001)
Side Effects (2013)

Münchausen syndrome by proxy

The Sixth Sense (1999)
Glass House: The Good Mother (2006)

Narcissistic personality disorder

Wall Street (1987)
Small Sacrifices (1989)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Braindead (1992)
Aladdin (1992)
To Die For (1995)
Election (1999)
The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

David and Lisa (1962)
The Odd Couple (1968)
Turner and Hooch (1989)
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
What About Bob? (1991)
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Matchstick Men (2003)
The Aviator (2004)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Run & Jump (2013)

Posttraumatic stress disorder

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Marnie (1964)
Chinatown (1974)
Coming Home (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Ordinary People (1980)
First Blood (1982)
Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982)
Birdy (1984)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Fisher King (1991)
The Prince of Tides (1991)
Fearless (1993)
The Client (1994)
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
Seven (1995)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
X-Men (2000)
Antwone Fisher (2002)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Jarhead (2005)
In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Reign Over Me (2007)
Shake Hands with the Devil (2007)
Precious (2009)
Brothers (2009)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
How I Live Now (2013)
Captain Phillips (2013)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Schizoaffective disorder

Shine (1996)

Schizophrenia

Out of Darkness (1994)
The Snake Pit (1948)
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Lilith (1964)
Black Christmas (1974)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Die Berührte (1981)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Angst (1983)
Benny & Joon (1993)
Clean, Shaven (1993)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Donnie Darko (2001)
The Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Spider (2002)
The Soloist (2009)
Black Swan (2010)
Take Shelter (2011)

Self injury

Chatroom (2010)
Thirteen (2012)

Suicide

Germany, Year Zero (1948)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Damned (1969)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Ordinary People (1980)
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
The Big Chill (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
Better Off Dead (1985)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
'night, Mother (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Heathers (1988)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Thelma and Louise (1991)
The Client (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Hard Core Logo (1996)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Boogie Nights (1997)
The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
Gods and Monsters (1998)
What Dreams May Come (1998)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Almost Famous (2000)
Monster's Ball (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
The Good Girl (2002)
The Hours (2002)
The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
A single man (2009)
Inception (2010)
Shame (2011)
Detachment (2011)
A Long Way Down (2014)
The Skeleton Twins (2014)
Two Days, One Night (2014)
Ida (2014)

Ungrouped

See also

Mental illness in fiction
List of films featuring mental illness

Notes

References

Danny Wedding, Mary Ann Boyd and Ryan M. Niemiec, Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology, 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA, Hogrefe & Hufer Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-88937-292-6. http://www.hogrefe.com/program/movies-and-mental-illness.html
David J. Robinson, Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions, Rapid Psychler Press, 2003, ISBN 1-894328-07-8.
Glen O. Gabbard and Krin Gabbard, Psychiatry and the Cinema, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2nd ed., 1999, ISBN 0-88048-964-2.
Otto F. Wahl, Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness, Piscataway, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8135-2213-7.