Hollywood ‘psych-out’

Bill Knight column for 8-22, 23 or 24, 2019

Mental illness is in the news, with claims that mass shootings would decrease if mentally ill Americans were disarmed (which experts say is foolish since there’s no correlation and focusing on such troubled people unfairly stigmatizes them.)

Hollywood has rarely helped, so this week – the 29^th anniversary of the death of influential behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner – here’s a snapshot of the movie tradition that for decades has exploited mental illness and psychology to dramatic, if not therapeutic, effect.

When Jeff Bridges treats Kevin Spacey in “K-Pax” or Billy Crystal helps Robert DeNiro in “Analyze This,” the private/privileged relationship between patient and therapist forms the film’s foundation. There’s a line of psychiatrists and psychologists who deal with something that’s often inexact and usually challenging, and mental/emotional conditions that can be daunting, if not frightening.

Of course, movies’ depiction of psychologists is no more exact than police, housewives or workers. Some doctors exploit their patients; others care too much. Think of kind Bob Hartley (TV’s “Bob Newhart Show”), the understanding Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) in HBO’s “Sopranos” or the villainous Robert Elliott (Michael Caine) in the movie “Dressed to Kill.”

“Hollywood has always been fascinated with psychiatrists,” said Glen Gabbard, co-author of “Psychiatry and the Cinema.” “By having a psychiatrist in the movie, you can enter the mind of a character as they confess inner thoughts.”

The first U.S. movie to feature a psychiatrist was “Dr. Dippy’s Sanitarium” in 1906. By mid-century, psychology and its movie image became more common. Since, filmgoers have seen dramas ranging from “Vertigo” and “Love & Mercy” to “The Group” and “The Caine Mutiny”; comedies (Mel Brooks’ “High Anxiety” and “The President’s Analyst”; melodramas (“Possessed” and “Dark Mirror”); thrillers (“Asylum,” “The Shining”); romances (“Lady in the Dark,” “Benny & Joon”) and horror (“Psycho,” “Asylum Blackout”).

Sometimes settings are key (“Shock Corridor”). And for every shallow “Couch Trip” (a sort of big-screen “Frazier”) there’s a substantive “Freud,” John Huston’s biopic of the father of psychoanalysis.

There are many, from “Final Analysis” to “The Dream Team,” but here are 10, so lie back; relax. Now: How does that make you FEEL?

“Captain Newman, M.D.” (1963). Alternately serious and light-hearted, this stars Gregory Peck as an World War II psychiatrist treating GIs affected with PTSD (then called “battle fatigue”). It features Eddie Albert, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin. Angie Dickinson and Robert Duvall.

“Charly” (1968). Cliff Robertson earned an Oscar for his portrayal of a developmentally disabled man whose IQ is boosted by doctors’ experimental treatment that boosts his IQ, but at a price.

“Girl, Interrupted” (1999). Winona Ryder stars as a delusional teen institutionalized after a drug overdose. Other patients suffer different conditions: a compulsive liar, a sexual-abuse victim, and a mesmerizing personality. Angelina Jolie, Vanessa Redgrave and Whoopi Goldberg co-star.

“Nuts” (1987). Martin Ritt directed this drama about a prostitute (Barbra Streisand) accused of murder and facing a dilemma: be declared insane and go free but suffer the consequences, or be found sane and risk imprisonment. Dreyfuss is a lawyer torn between facts and truth. Its cast includes Karl Malden, Eli Wallach and James Whitmore.

“One Flew over The Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975). Producer Michael Douglas, director Milos Forman and star Jack Nicholson made this adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel superb -- the first film since 1934’s It Happened One Night to sweep the major Academy Awards. Nicholson plays a petty criminal who manipulates a transfer from jail to a mental institution, supposedly for an exam. While there, he inspires patients to question authority. Louise Fletcher is great as a domineering nurse; Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito and Will Sampson co-star.

“Pressure Point” (1962). Sidney Poitier stars in this drama about a doctor treating a racist neurotic jailed for sedition for Nazi sympathies. Through analysis, surprises emerge help explain his condition. Bobby Darin and Peter Falk co-star.

“Prince of Tides” (1991). Barbra Streisand is a psychiatrist who’s helped treating a troubled woman (Melinda Dillon) by the patient’s brother (Nick Nolte). Gradually, the doctor unravels the sister’s background but falls in love with the brother. It co-stars Blythe Danner and George Carlin.

“Spellbound” (1945). Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant star in Alfred Hitchcock’s melodrama about an asylum administrator hiding a problem. A psychiatrist and the promise of love may help. (It features an intriguing sequence by surrealist Salvador Dali.)

 “Sybil” (2007). Based on a true story about a woman whose abusive childhood caused her to develop multiple personalities, this starx Tammy Blanchard and Jessica Lange (It’s better than the sanitized TV mini-series starring Sally Field.)

“Three Faces of Eve” (1957). Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for her role as a shy girl who has multiple personalities, from sophisticate to siren. Lee J. Cobb, Vince Edwards and David Wayne co-star.