IDS
3932: Psychological Disorders in Film
ICIS
Seminar
Laura Vernon lvernon@fau.edu WB 219, Office hours: T &
R 2:45-3:45
Daniel White dwhite@fau.edu HC 146, Office Hours: T & R
2:45-3:45
Summer
A, 2009
Course Overview:
This
course is designed to explore the “psychological disorders” as they are
revealed in classic and popular film from the perspectives of clinical
psychology, philosophy, and interdisciplinary critical theory. Films will be
studied as “media texts” composed of various elements which can be interpreted
from multiple perspectives. Thus we will examine each film text in terms of
abnormal psychology (the kind of mental disorder it seems to exemplify:
multiple personalities, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc.) as well as from the
perspectives of philosophy and critical theory. Philosophers or critical
theorists might ask: beyond the concept of “mental disorder” what alternative
ways might be invoked to describe the same characters, plot, images, etc.;
e.g., what are the humanistic, existential, gendered, and agonistic dimensions
of meaning not necessarily exhausted by psychological analysis; who is a
“psychologist” and by what “reason” does s/he “diagnose” and “treat” a “disorder”? Could a cyborg, say Mr. Data, serve as
“psychotherapist” or as a “philosopher”?
Further, what are the social, cultural, institutional, and historical
dimensions of “mental patients” and “mental-health practitioners”? Thus whether
you are a film buff, a nascent psychologist or philosopher or social theorist,
or pre-professionally undecided, you should find ample space for critical
interpretation, discussion, and learning. As this is an Interdisciplinary
Critical Inquiry Seminar, your full participation in the round of course
activities and assignments is essential.
In a typical class session (or T/R pair of sessions) we will view a film
together, you will write a brief response (300-500 words) to it in light of the
assigned readings, and our discussion will ensue based on what you’ve written.
As the term proceeds, you will break down into groups. Each group will give a
presentation in which members will select a film to show (selected clips) to
the class for critical analysis. This will be your definitive discussion and
critique of a “mental disorder” in a film text in light of the kinds of
critical perspectives studied in the course. Based on your presentation, you
will submit a final essay (1,500 words) in which you provide an analysis of the
same film text from at least two distinct perspectives (including abnormal
psychology and either philosophy or critical theory), drawing your own
conclusions. You are the critical discussants; you are the scholars. We are
here as catalysts and as guides as we enter into a complex interdisciplinary
territory. Please see
Assignments and Grades below for specific
upcoming tasks.
Required Texts:
Bateson,
Gregory. Steps
to an Ecology of Mind
Foucault,
Michel. Madness
& Civilization
Laing,
R. D. Politics
of Experience
Skinner,
B.F. Walden
Two
Yale Film Analysis Guide
online only
Required
American
Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV).
Beck,
J. (1995). Cognitive conceptualization. In Cognitive
Therapy: Basics and Beyond (pp. 13-24).
Chomsky,
Noam. "Psychology and Ideology." Cognition 1
(1972): 11-46.
Comer,
R. (2007). Abnormal psychology: Past and present. In Abnormal
Psychology, 6th edition (pp. 1-25).
Comer,
R. (2007). Treatments for Schizophrenia and other severe
mental disorders. In Abnormal Psychology, 6th
edition (pp. 437-459).
Freud, S. (1989). The aetiology of hysteria. In P. Gay (Ed.), The Freud Reader.
Freud, S. (1989).
Family romances. In P. Gay (Ed.), The Freud Reader.
Freud, S. (1989). Anna
O. In P. Gay (Ed.), The Freud Reader.
Nye,
R. D. (1981). Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. In Three Psychologies:
Perspectives from Freud, Skinner, and Rogers-2nd ed. (pp. 1-45).
Nye, R. D. (1981). B.F. Skinner and radical behaviorism. In Three Psychologies:
Perspectives from Freud, Skinner, and Rogers-2nd ed. (pp. 47-105).
Nye, R. D. (1981). Carl Rogers and humanistic phenomenology. In Three
Psychologies: Perspectives from Freud, Skinner, and Rogers-2nd ed. (pp.
107-147).
Rogers, C. (1989). A
therapist’s view of the good life: The fully functioning person. In H. Kirschenbaum & V. L. Henderson (Eds.), The Carl Rogers Reader (pp. 409-419).
Vaillant, G. E. (1992). Glossary of Defenses. In Ego Mechanisms of Defense: A Guide
for Clinicians and Researchers (pp. 243-251).
Required Films:
The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921)
Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)
A
Beautiful Mind
(2001)
Lars
and the Real Girl (2007)
Girl
Interrupted (2000)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975)
Reference Films:
Justice
vs. Power - Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault, Part 1 (6:51)
Justice
vs. Power - Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault, Part 2 (6:03)
Wikipedia
List of Films & Mental Illness
Film List with
Associated Mental Disorders
Other websites that
might prove useful for film analysis:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/film_resources.html
http://filmguide.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Assignments
& Grades:
1)
A series of in-class
critical responses to films based on readings = 40% of final grade
2)
Class attendance and active participation = 10% of
final grade
3)
Group presentation = 25% of final grade
4)
Final essay = 25% of final grade (submitted in duplicate, one copy for each professor)
Notes:
--Responses may be
assigned in any class session, announced or unannounced.
--Essays will be
graded both for quality of English composition and for content (though
expectations are different for in-class and final essays).
Grading symbols for grammar and mechanics; also see Dr. Weisser’s online composition handbook at: http://wise.fau.edu/~weisser/handbook.htm.
a/p = “active or passive voice
cs = “comma splice”
dm
= “dangling modifier”
d/wc =
“diction” or “word choice”
doc = “documentation
style”
frag =
“sentence fragment”
ital =
“use italics”
m = “mood” (indicative, subjunctive,
interrogative, imperative)
mm = “misplaced modifier”
pa = “pronoun-antecedent agreement” or PR “pronoun
reference””
rep = “repetition”
subj =
“subjunctive”
sv =
“subject-verb agreement”
t
= “verb tense” (either the
wrong tense or an inappropriate tense shift)
Sequence
of Assignments
Week 1: May 12-14
T Film: The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921); History of the
Film
Comer: Chapter 1
Foucault:
Preface and Chapter 1, “Stultifera Navis,” pp. 3-38; Foucault’s images: Breugel
the
Elder: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The ‘Cripples’ [Lepers] 1568; Mathias Grūnewald,
Temptation of Saint
Anthony, second
view, from the Isenheim
Altarpiece 1512-1516;
Hieronymus Bosch’s Works, Ship of Fools
(painting) 1490-1500;
Albrecht Dürer: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1497-1498;
Bateson:
“Metalogue: About Games & Being Serious,” Steps, pp. 14-20
R Film: Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho (1960); Psycho
Film History
DSM-IV:
Dissociative Identity Disorder, Conversion Disorder
Nye:
Freud chapter
Freud:
Aetiology of Hysteria, Anna O., Family Romances
Foucault:
Chapters 2-3, “The Great Confinement, “The Insane,” pp. 38-84; ‘mad’ and
‘poor’:
William Hogarth William
Hogarth, Beer Street and Gin Lane 1751; A Rake's Progress (see
final scene, “Bedlam”)
Bateson:
“Cybernetic Explanation,” Steps, pp.
405-415; “Metalogue: What is an Instinct?”
Steps,
pp. 38-38;
rethinking aetiology.
Week 2: May: 19-21
T Film: A
Beautiful Mind (2001)
DSM-IV:
Schizophrenia
Vaillant:
Glossary of Defenses
Foucault:
Chapters 4-5, “Passion & Delirium,” “Aspects of Madness,” pp. 85-158;
Bateson: “The Logical Categories of Learning and Communication,” Steps, pp. 279-308; “Style, Grace, &
Information in Primitive Art,” Steps, pp.
128-147 (or to 152 if you have time).
R No Film:
Comer: Chapter 15, Schizophrenia Treatment
Foucault:
Chapter 6, “Doctors & Patients,” pp. 183-186;
Chapters 8-9, “The New Division,”
“The Birth of the Asylum,” pp.
221-278;
Bateson
et al.: “Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia,”
Steps, pp. 201-227.
Laing: Politics of Experience, Introduction, chs.
1-2. .
Week 3: May 26-28
T Film: Lars
and the Real Girl (2007)
DSM-IV:
Delusional Disorder
Nye:
Bateson: “Group Dynamics of
Schizophrenia,” Steps, pp.
228-243;
Laing:
Politics of Experience, chs. 3-5.
R Film: Girl
Interrupted (2000); Film Summary
DSM-IV:
Antisocial Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder,
Obsessive
Compulsive Personality Disorder
Nye:
Skinner chapter
Skinner: Walden II: pp. 1-76;
Bateson:
“A Theory of Play and Fantasy,” Steps, pp.
177-193;
Week 4 June 2-4
T Film:
Justice
vs. Power - Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault, Part 1 (6:51)
Justice
vs. Power - Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault, Part 2 (6:03)
Skinner: pp. 77-145
Chomsky: “Psychology &
Ideology,” complete (print file from MyFAU)
R Film: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: mental disorder, institutionalization, and resistance;
Skinner: pp. 146-196
Bateson:
“Metalogue: Why do Things Have Outlines?” Steps,
pp. 27-32; “Pathologies of
Epistemology:” Steps, pp. 486-495;
Laing: Politics
of Experience, chs. 6-7 &
“The Bird of Paradise.”
Beck:
Cognitive Conceptualization; Jean
Piget on Child Development and Genetic Epistemology
Week 5: June 9-11
T Group Presentations
R Group Presentations
Week 6: June 16-18
T Group Presentations
R Final
Essays Due: must be submitted in duplicate (one copy for each professor)
Group Presentations
