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Art Imitates Life – Mental Health in Movies

Why is Pushpa FIRE? Is it his determination to win or is it an anger issue? Here are 10 movies that did justice to rare mental health disorders
Rayomand S. Engineer
By
Rayomand S. Engineer
Art Imitates Life – Mental Health in Movies

Introduction

When we say “mental health”, the first word that pops up is depression. Now, granted, depression is a legitimate mental health issue. According to data, in 2017, 45.7 million people in India had depressive disorders, which is roughly 4.5% of the population.

Depression is so widespread and common that if you throw a stone in the street, it’ll hit someone with depression. Now, what about Dissociative Identity Disorder? This mental health condition involves having around two or more distinct personalities or “personality states”. Previously, it was known as multiple personality disorder. This is rare. Such is art.

Art reflects life. Movies talk about and address complex societal mental problems and disorders. For instance, you’ve never seen anyone with Cotard’s Delusion. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now you know about Cotard’s Delusion, but do you know what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio on Shutter Island? Why was Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) constantly creating a false world to escape his past? You’ll learn more about Shutter Island later in this article.

Do you know what it feels like to have 23 different personalities? That’s what dissociative identity disorder feels like. There are a bunch of mental illnesses that you may not stumble upon, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Mental illness is complicated. They make movie plots complicated. Directors feel that they can tell such stories.