They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Then a moving picture must be worth a million, especially when it comes to understanding human behavior. You can read about mental illnesses in books forever, but actually seeing a human being with that mental illness is the only way to truly begin to understand what it looks like. Below you will find a list of movies which depict mental health issues. I'm not trying to list every movie with mental health, but only those which I feel depict mental health issues accurately, or in a way that is useful for understanding. I will be adding to this list as I am able. Feel free to post suggestions in the comments. I always welcome feedback and suggestions!
Movies are listed by mental health topic.
Alzheimer's
Away From Her - Julie Christie portrays a woman's descent into Alzheimer's. The movie is from the point of view of her loving husband and it beautifully depicts the devastating effects of this illness on loved ones.
Amnesia
Memento - Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a man who has anterograde amnesia (he can't form new memories). Leonard is trying to find the person who raped and murdered his wife. To compensate for being unable to form new memories he keeps his "notes" tattooed on his body. This movie has a fantastic finale which will not be spoiled here.
Autism
Rain Man - Dustin Hoffman plays a man who is an autistic savant. Hoffman does a brilliant job of demonstrating the abilities and limitations of this disorder.
Avoidant Personality Disorder
The Aviator - Leonardo di Caprio plays Howard Hughes, probably the most famous of all obsessive compulsives. The movie does a beautiful job portraying Hughes' struggles with his obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, how they led to his downfall and possibly played into his eventual death. Hughes' Avoidant Personality Disorder which made caused him a great deal of stress in interpersonal or social situations is also illuminated.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Fatal Attraction - Glenn Close plays a woman who derails after being rejected by her lover, Michael Douglas. Her portrayal of borderline behavior is classic.
Girl, Interrupted - Winona Ryder is a young woman hospitalized for treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Angelina Jolie, a narcissist, magnificently manipulates the entire ward of girls and eventually preys upon Brittany Murphy, who plays a patient struggling with an eating disorder. The interaction between these three patients is beautifully portrayed.
Play Misty For Me - Clint Eastwood plays a radio host who is pursued by a listener. Think Fatal Attraction.
Bipolar Disorder
Mr. Jones - Richard Gere does an excellent job of portraying a manic episode with psychosis in this movie. This is what true mania looks like. I only see two problems with his portrayal. His portrayal suggests that he is able to "read" people or have psychic abilities (i.e. guessing how many children someone has, knowing their marital status or knowing where they are from). However, the way "Mr. Jones" hands out $100 bills randomly, his euphoria and his impulsivity (opening a checking account with $12,000 then closing it out in cash five days later) is very typical of people in a manic phase. The judge in his competency hearing talks very slowly to him, as if his intelligence were impaired. This can be infuriating for people with mental health disorders, who usually have a higher than average intelligence, yet they are often treated this way. The impulsivity with which "Mr. Jones" takes up with the bank teller and the way she gets caught up in his manic episode are typical. Mania can be very infectious to bystanders. Mr. Jones' claim in the incompetency hearing that he could conduct the symphony better is also typical of the grandiosity seen in Bipolar Disorder. However, the courtroom scene is totally dramatized. There would be no gallery of witnesses (at least in my state) and it would be a very quick procedure.
Just once I would like to see a movie which portrays the relationship between therapist and client correctly. It is absolutely unethical for any mental health professional to date a client or have a personal relationship with them and I am always horrified when I see this in movies. Lena Olin, who plays the psychiatrist, takes Gere home in her car, buys him lunch and basically submits to his overtures. This might cost her her license in real life.
Olin also mistakenly refers to his diagnosis as "Bipolar Manic Depressive Disorder". There is no such thing. Manic Depression is the old name. Bipolar Disorder is the modern term.
Mr. Jones' request that he go untreated is also typical. Many people with Bipolar Disorder enjoy the manic episodes, and rightfully so after experiencing the depressive episodes. They have energy, their minds are firing at lightning speed and they are euphoric. Treating the mania is much easier than treating the depression so many people with Bipolar Disorder who take medications manage to eliminate the mania successfully, but not the depression. And many miss the euphoria of the mania.
A great movie if you want to see what true Bipolar Disorder looks like. It is much more than mere "mood swings".
Death and Dying
Life as a House - Kevin Kline does a beautiful job portraying a terminally ill trying to connect with his rebellious teenaged son before he dies.
Developmental Disorder
I Am Sam - Sean Penn portrays a man with mental retardation fighting for custody of his 7-year-old child. Sam's group of friends are entertaining - two are truly developmentally disabled - his close neighbor is agoraphobic.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Johnny Depp plays an older brother caring for his younger sibling is developmentally disabled.
Depression, See Major Depression
Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously called Multiple Personality Disorder)
Sybil - This classic features Sally Field as Sybil, a young woman struggling with a severe case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Field's performance is stellar and Joanne Woodward gives a rare, realistic portrayal of how a therapist actual conducts therapy.
Eating Disorders
Girl, Interrupted - Winona Ryder is a young woman hospitalized for treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Angelina Jolie, a narcissist, magnificently manipulates the entire ward of girls and eventually preys upon Brittany Murphy, who plays a patient struggling with an eating disorder. The interaction between these three patients is beautifully portrayed.
Gender Identity Disorder
Ma Vie En Rose - This film beautifully portrays the early signs of Gender Identity Disorder in a young boy. The reactions to his style of dress by his family and community is also explored. (French, with English subtitles)
Major Depression
The Hours - Nicole Kidman portrays Virginia Woolf, who is writing the novel Mrs. Dalloway, while another woman is reading the book in the 1950s, and a third present day woman is living it. All three lives have parallels of depression and suicide. Wonderful portrayal of the symptoms of Major Depression and its impact on family members.
Mental Health Issues
An Unfinished Life - Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez star in a movie which explores death, grief and forgiveness.
Proof - A dark comedy about a blind man who takes photographs as proof that the world is really as the people in life describe it to him. An interesting and charming look at trust issues.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
There Will Be Blood - Mystery Shrink has an excellent article describing the narcissistic characters in this film
Girl, Interrupted - Winona Ryder is a young woman hospitalized for treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Angelina Jolie, a narcissist, magnificently manipulates the entire ward of girls and eventually preys upon Brittany Murphy, who plays a patient struggling with an eating disorder. The interaction between these three patients is beautifully portrayed.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Maggie Smith plays the perfect narcissist in her role as a school teacher who uses her influence over young girls (and the male teachers) to glorify herself.
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Matt Damon and Jude Law portray two narcissists who use and discard people, fuse with them, and practice "Marge Maintenance" to keep their suppliers of adulation and sex happy.
White Oleander - Michelle Pfeiffer plays a narcissistic mother and the effect her narcissism has on her daughter is portrayed
A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story - Meredith Baxter Birney portrays Betty Broderick in the true story of her narcissistic rage against the husband who divorces her. Broderick's rage eventually ends in her murder of her ex-husband and his new wife.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
The Aviator - Leonardo di Caprio plays Howard Hughes, probably the most famous of all obsessive compulsives. The movie does a beautiful job portraying Hughes' struggles with his obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, how they led to his downfall and possibly played into his eventual death. Hughes' Avoidant Personality Disorder which made caused him a great deal of stress in interpersonal or social situations is also illuminated.
As Good As It Gets - Jack Nicholson does a wonderful job of portraying this comedic look at someone struggling valiantly against Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Transgenderism
Boys Don't Cry - Hillary Swank does a stellar job of portraying the real life story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teen who was raped and murdered after his male friends found out he had female genitalia.
Schizophrenia
A Beautiful Mind - Russell Crowe portrays John Forbes Nash Jr., a math prodigy able to solve problems that baffled the greatest of minds and his struggle with Schizophrenia.
Clean, Shaven - This is a very accurate, and graphic, portrayal of Schizophophrenia through the eyes of a paranoid schizophrenic. The depiction of hallucinations is particularly well done and worth seeing, but you may want to be prepared to look away at some of the more graphic scenes (i.e. when he believes there is something planted in his head and tries to cut it out).
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Kathleen Quinlan plays Deborah Blake, a young woman hospitalized for Schizophrenia. This movie is based on the autobiographical book by the same name. As usual, the movie is not nearly as comprehensive as the book. What is interesting about the movie and the book is that Deborah Blau's Schizophrenia is cured by therapy, not medication. The movie portrays how this was done from the patient's point of view. Very interesting.
Proof (with Gwyneth Paltrow) - A beautiful and touching film with Anthony Hopkins as a brilliant mathemetician who struggles with symptoms of Schizophrenia. After his death, his daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, who is equally brilliant at mathematics and watched her father's descent into madness, fears she has inherited the illness and struggles for her own sanity.
Shine - a beautiful movie about a brilliant pianist who is also schizophrenic. The portrayal of the abuse by his father which probably played a significant role in his resulting Schizophrenia is invaluable.
Scapegoat Role
The Caine Mutiny - Fred MacMurray portrays Lt. Keefer who does a beautiful job of setting up the Scapegoat role for Lt. Maryk against Lt. Commander Queeg. See my article on this movie for a more thorough analysis.
Substance Abuse
Lady Sings the Blues - Diana Ross portrays Billie Holliday and her lifelong struggle with drugs and alcohol.
Leaving Las Vegas - Nicholas Cage portrays a suicidal alcoholic man in the final days of his life.
Requiem for a Dream - Ellen Burstyn plays a woman addicted to diet pills, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly portray heroin addicts. Roger Ebert called this film a "travelogue of hell" and indeed this trip through the hell of drug addiction is strikely realistic.
Suicide
'Night Mother - Sissy Spacek announces her intention to kill herself to her mother, Anne Bancroft, who attempts to convince her not to do it.
Ordinary People - Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton in a beautiful movie showing how three different people; a mother, a father and a brother deal with the suicide of the oldest son.