20 films about psychology and mental disorders

Film fictions in which psychology is the protagonist.

Psychology also has its place in the seventh art. Of course, virtually any film can offer a psychological psychological reading of its characters or of the way of thinking of the person who directed it. In fact, not only the big screen offers us plots with high psychological content, but TV series are also getting it:

• "Psychological series: 20 series that every psychologist should watch".

And, obviously, documentaries can also equip you with extensive knowledge on the subject:

• "15 absolutely essential documentaries on psychology".

However, the list of films about psychology that you will find below is especially recommended for anyone interested in studying and understanding this discipline and the contents it deals with:

Psychology movies of yesterday and today

Let's start with the compilation of psychological cinema that you can enjoy while learning concepts and stories related to the world of the mind.

1. The Prince of Tides (1991).

Romantic melodrama directed by Barbra Streisand based on the book of the same name written by Pat Conroy. Although it is a story based on love and forgiveness, it also talks about childhood traumas and the mark they can leave on adult life in the form of PTSD. Highly recommended.

2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

This is a film that focuses on the psychological consequences of suffering a physical handicap. The main character, a former editor-in-chief of the magazine Ellemagazine, is locked up in his own body due to the so called locked-in syndromeunable to move anything voluntarily except one eye. From that moment on, this eye will be the only window of communication that will keep him in contact with the rest of the people and will allow him to write an autobiographical book, the same one on which this film was based and with which it shares its name.

The film, in addition to containing an important emotional charge, is a reflection on the relationship between the mind (or rather, consciousness) and the body itself.

3. Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

In this film starring the illustrious Jack Nicholson, the essential problems of the tradition on which many mental institutions are based are shown: overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, overdiagnosis and overdiagnosis. overdiagnosisoverdiagnosis, the undervaluation of the inmate as the agent responsible for his own life, the pigeonholing of people using diagnostic labels, and invasive methods to change behavioral patterns. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey and at the time won many awards due to its perfect technical finish and the humanist message it conveys.

4. Memento (2000)

It combines a perfect exemplification of what is the anterograde amnesia (a disorder in which no new memories are formed) with a way of narrating that makes us better understand this type of disorder. The film is composed of two types of scenessome in black and white and others in color, which follow each other back and forth in time to leave us at all times with the confusing feeling that we are missing something to understand what is happening. The film also makes us wonder where is one's own identity when memory is not there to connect all the experiences we live through?.

5. Take Shelter (2011)

An ordinary family man begins to give in to the fear of a possible apocalypse. apocalypse without being subject to any rational explanation. From that moment on, he enters a spiral of rash decisions without us knowing if he has reasons to act this way or if it is delirium. This film could be included in a list of films about psychology for the sensations it makes us experience, although what it tries to explain is more a metaphor about the American way of life, deeply based on private property, than an illustration of the mental mechanisms of paranoia. paranoia.

6. Funny Games (1997)

A family of vacationers is kidnapped from their own home by a couple of men dressed as golfers. From this premise, the Austrian director Michael Haneke devotes more than an hour to show us what happens when psychopathy is combined with high doses of bad faith and the desire to eliminate others.

The realistic cut of the film is combined with a component of metafiction in which the viewer is directly challenged by what he or she is seeing, which does not help to make the film lighter. There are also occasions in which reference is made to the fact that everything that happens is part of a film in which the will of the golfing couple takes precedence, which reinforces the feeling that they have everything under control and that behind their apparent impulsiveness there is a framework of perverse rationality. Not recommended for sensitive stomachs.

7. I am a cyborg (2006)

Much more lyrical than the previous one, I am a cyborg is a movie set in South Korea in which a young woman is a young woman is committed to a psychiatric hospital because of her hallucinations. hallucinations. It is a love film in which the suitor, who is also hospitalized, climbs the steps of the parallel reality created by the protagonist, understanding its hidden logic, in order to help her. A curious and profound film at the same time.

8. The Experiment (2001)

A list of films about psychology cannot exclude the social side of our behavior. The Experiment is a film based on the Stanford prison experiment, which was conducted in 1971 under the supervision of the psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

In it, several people are randomly assigned to two categories: guards of a fictitious prison and prisoners of the same. During this experiment, which ended abruptly when it escaped the control of the experimenters, it was possible to see to what extent social elements as superficial as group membership can totally change people's morality. If you study psychology, you should see this film as soon as possible.

9. Better... impossible (1997)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is portrayed here with humor. Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson again) builds his day-to-day life from small, unwavering routines and a unique ability to be obnoxious. Udall lets compulsions and repetitive compulsions and repetitive patterns of behavior dictate his life until one day comes until one day a novelty crosses his path and changes his character for the better.

10. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

One of Stanley Kubrick's great classics, based on a novel of the same name. The protagonist is accustomed to a life of violence and out-of-control due to a probable antisocial personality disorder. When he is incarcerated, a group of technicians decide to test with him a method to suppress violent impulses through a good dose of behavioral psychology.

The film talks about the belief in small, invisible springs that activate certain patterns of behavior regardless of a person's will. This futuristic dystopia is considered by many to be the queen of psychology films because of its focus on both psychological mechanisms and a discussion of their existence and the role of modern psychiatry.

Other psychological movies

Here are some other movies related to psychology that may interest you.

11. The Truman Show (1998)

One of the best-known films starring actor Jim Carrey, who on this occasion abandons the comic register that characterizes him to play the role of a man who has lived his whole life in a gigantic television set without knowing it.. Incidentally, this play gave its name to a recently discovered type of delirium.

12. The Witch (2015).

A recently released film that has garnered great fame. It narrates the life of a family of American settlers who move to an isolated settlement in the forest to start a new life. The clash between the presence of a witch around their house and the family's strong religious faith will gradually the family's strong religious faith will gradually lead to the emergence of delusional ideas. delirious ideas.

13. American History X (1998)

The story of two skinhead brothers skinheads of national socialist ideology that little by little are coming out of the spiral of hatred in which they live. People interested in social psychology will find in this movie an interesting story about the in this film an interesting story about the formation of boundaries that separate the ingroup, those with whom we identify ourselves, from the exogroupthose with whom we try to compete.

14. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

An American thriller that has become one of the most remembered cult psychological films.. Based on the novel of the same name by writer Thomas Harris, it shows a part of the life of Hannibal Lecter, a cannibalistic psychopath with a history as a serial killer.

15. I am Sam (2001)

The story of a mentally handicapped man played by Sean Penn who fights by all means to keep custody of his daughter. To do so, he has the help of a lawyer (Michelle Pfeiffer) who will gradually see in her client an example of dignity and determination. This film is about willpower and the motivation that leads a person to break the limits that he or she thought were limiting him or her.

16. The Arrival

An excellent psychological film that uses the resources of the science-fiction genre to explore two themes closely related to psychology and psycholinguistics: the mourning the death of a loved one. and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, according to which our thoughts and our way of living experiences depend on the type of language we are accustomed to using.

The excuse to talk about these fascinating topics is the arrival of alien life forms on earth and the need to establish diplomatic relations with them without knowing how they communicate.

17. The Black Swan (2010)

One of director Darren Aronofsky's best known psychological films. The Black Swan talks about how the need to seek perfection without limit, the perfection, competitiveness and the lack of moments of intimacy can take over a person's life. can take over a person to the point of breaking his or her mind.

18. Cab driver

A classic film. It is about a man who, to combat his insomnia and boredom, decides to start working as a cab driver during the nights. Little by little he will try to find a relevant task to give meaning to his existence, even if this puts him and others in danger.

19. Rain Man (988)

If you are looking for a psychology film that shows many of the characteristics associated with autism, Rain Man is a very good option. In it Dustin Hoffman plays a man with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and who begins to relate to a brother he barely knows.

20. An Almost Funny Story (2010)

Craig, a teenager with severe depression is placed in a psychiatric facility. There, as the area is full of people her age, she will have to live with the adults, where she will make friends with a man named Bob (Zack Galifianakis) and Noelle (Emma Roberts), another girl of similar age.

Want more movies?

We propose you more movies, this time related to the field of Philosophy:

• "10 philosophical films about identity".