L. TARSITANI, P. PANCHERI - Vol. 10, March 2004, Issue 1
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Indice
Cinema e psichiatri: dagli oracoli al cannibalismo
Cinema and Psychiatrists: from Oracles to Cannibalism
Background
The numerous and heterogeneous film representations of psychiatrists appear to have a remarkable impact on social attitudes towards psychiatry, in fact, cinematographic stereotypes crucially influence real life ones.
In literature, besides studies on cinema and psychiatry focusing on selected films, there are no systematic analyses on the actual presence of psychiatrists in 20th Century cinema and on film characteristics that represent psychiatrists as referred to the totality of cinematographic production. We aim at providing some responses to the above issues.
Methods
We used as a database a CD-rom version of a Dictionary of Cinema to carry-out a research on 15 roots of key words related to psychiatry; these yielded 1633 film records. Record analysis allowed for the selection of 381 films where a mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychologist, "shrinks" etc.) or a structure for mentally ill people (asylum, mental health clinic, psychiatric hospital etc.) is cited in the plot.
Results and Conclusion
Descriptive statistics were used for data processing, using
all films from within the Dictionary corresponding to our research aims. Psychiatry
in the cinema is considered across the 20th Century decades (presence of psychiatrists
as related to time period, women and psychiatry, film categories, film critique
etc.).
Results show that psychiatry-related images and ambience in the cinema constitute
elements that play a key role in determining the lay people’s imagery and
expectations towards psychiatry.