Did you know that millions of people are affected by mental illness, Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. live with a diagnosed condition (National Institute of Mental Health).
Some storylines stigmatize mental health conditions, while others more accurately depict what it’s like to have a mental health concern or care for someone who does.
This course will offer the students the chance to identify movie storyline's depicting the "stigma" of mental illness, and its' impact on the individual, families, and society. Discuss what these stigmas mean, and how movies can more accurately increase their awareness and compassion towards mental diseases.
Each class, students will watch a film (or segments of multiple films), analyze the main character(s) struggle with a mental illness and discuss the effects on audience members feelings, behaviors, and action. Also, the class will explore how different people might interpret the messages of mental health differently in a film.
Overall, utilizing film as a conduit to portraying topics of mental illness on the big screen, offers students the opportunity to analyze its' impact on society; either stigmatizing or providing advocacy for more education and policy development.
Films the class will preview (not all) are:
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), A Woman Under The Influence (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Ordinary People (1980), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Misery (1990), Awakenings (1990), What is Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993), Benny and June (1993), Shine (1996), Girl, Interrupted (1999) Requiem For A Dream (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Aviator (2004), Lars and The Real Girl (2007), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Still Alice (2014) and more.