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BOOK REVIEW

Cinema e Loucura - conhecendo os transtornos mentais através dos filmes

Dra. Cristiane Reberte de Marque

Departamento de Neurociências e Ciências do Comportamento, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo

In Cinema e Loucura - conhecendo os transtornos mentais através dos filmes (Cinema and Madness - getting to know mental disorders through movies), authors J. Landeira-Fernandez and Elie Cheniaux invite the reader to join a meeting between science and art. The book approaches mental disorders though a constant dialogue between Psychiatry and Cinema, proving an interesting reading for those who enjoy one of these fields, and an mandatory reading for those who appreciate both; in addition, while reading the book they have the opportunity of enjoying usefulness and pleasure at the same time: learning and entertainment.

Accessible to the general public, but specially designed for those interested in psychopathology, the book provides a good example of how it is possible to teach and to learn about mental disorders without giving up the cultural and human background of the mental health area practitioners. It presents very clearly the diagnostic criteria of psychiatric nosology textbooks (including signs, symptoms, and syndromes) and emerging them to the spectator experience of the seventh art, aiming to complement the debate. The characters in the movies give life to diagnostic manuals as they become clinical cases that illustrate the disorders described, stimulating both formal knowledge and the esthetical emotional experience in that contact with mental disorders.

Seems interesting? Well, this book broadens yet more the understanding of the clinical presentations by bringing in the first chapter different historical and social scenarios in which psychiatry has been shaping itself, emphasizing the need to develop a critical way of thinking, beyond the clinical, for a wider understanding of psychopathology. Through to the essence of the whole book, it indicates films that highlight the problems pointed out.

Still in the first chapter the authors present important information, including those that serve as a basis for the construction of classification models as DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders) and ICD (International Classification of Diseases and health related problems). Then it goes deeper into groups of disorders, joining clinical aspects and films aspects.

Throughout the other 14 chapters one finds clinical descriptions together with 184 long movies, pure fiction or based in real facts, presenting one or more characters that illustrate and serve as a basis for the discussion of clinical pictures in the following categories of disorders: cognitive; substance-related mental disorders; psychotic; mood disorders; anxiety; somatoform; dissociative; factitious and simulation; of sexuality; eating disorders; sleep disorders; of impulse control; personality; and mental disorders of childhood and adolescence.

It was not by chance that this book was nominated to the Jabuti Prize of 2011 and selected as one of the finalists in the Health Sciences category. It is a unique literary work that rewards the reader with fine psychiatry classes and good films.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    14 Nov 2012
  • Date of issue
    Oct 2012
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