8 Mental Illnesses That Only Exist In Movies

Homeland as a character trying to maintain the stresses of her job with bipolar disorder. Film on the other hand has a limited amount of time but sometimes a couple of hours is all that is needed to portray mental illness in the right light. Memento and even Finding Nemo depict a realistic portrayal of amnesia. As Good As It Gets is a brilliant depiction of OCD and how it impacts every day aspects of life. And Rain Man was one of the first films to depict autism accurately on film, but even this led to the misconception that all sufferers of autism are also savants. With the latest discussion over whether The Silver Linings Playbook suggests bipolar disorder can be €˜cured by love€™, there is a big question over how effectively mental illness is portrayed on film. Sometimes films stretch the credibility of mental disorder to €˜fit the plot€™. How many times have you said €˜that would never happen€™ or a moment of mental crisis €˜conveniently€™ move the plot into a tangent? Sometimes the use of crazy is just that€crazy. I take a look at some mental illnesses that only exist in the world of film.* *Disclaimer. I€™m sure if you dug deep across various journals, you could find real life examples of everything I've discussed below. That being said, the €˜mental illnesses€™ I cover in this article could also be considered rather extreme. Let's click "next" below...
Contributor
Contributor

A writer for Whatculture since May 2013, I also write for TheRichest.com and am the TV editor and writer for Thedigitalfix.com . I wrote two plays for the Greater Manchester Horror Fringe in 2013, the first an adaption of Simon Clark's 'Swallowing A Dirty Seed' and my own original sci-fi horror play 'Centurion', which had an 8/10* review from Starburst magazine! (http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/eventsupcoming-genre-events/6960-event-review-centurion) I also wrote an episode for online comedy series Supermarket Matters in 2012. I aim to achieve my goal for writing for television (and get my novels published) but in the meantime I'll continue to write about those TV shows I love! Follow me on Twitter @BazGreenland and like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BazGreenlandWriter