List of mental disorders in film

This is a list of films which have portrayed mental disorders.

Inclusion in this list is based upon the disorder as it is portrayed in the canon of the film, and does not necessarily reflect the diagnosis or symptoms in the real world.

Agoraphobia

• What About Bob? – 1991 – character of Bob Wiley played by Bill Murray^[1]
• The Aviator – 2004 – character of Howard Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio^[2]

Antisocial personality disorder

(Antisocial Personality Disorder should also include psychopathy and sociopathy.)

• Badlands – 1973 – character of Kit Carruthers played by Martin Sheen^[3]
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – 1975 – character of Randle McMurphy played by Jack Nicholson^[4]
• Wall Street – 1987 – character of Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas^[5]
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – 1999 – character of Tom Ripley played by Matt Damon^[6]
• Training Day – 2001 – character of Alonzo Harris played by Denzel Washington^[7]
• Monster – 2003 – character of Aileen "Lee" Wuornos played by Charlize Theron^[8]
• Nightcrawler – 2014 – character of Louis Bloom played by Jake Gyllenhaal^[9]
• The Invisible Man – 2020 – character of Adrian Griffin played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen^[10]

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

• Juno – 2007 – character of Juno MacGuff, played by Elliot Page^[11]

Autism

• Rain Man − 1988 – character of savant Raymond Babbitt played by Dustin Hoffman^[12]
• Cube – 1997 – character of savant Kazan played by Andrew Miller^[13]
• Ben X − 2007 – character of Ben played by Greg Timmermans^[14]
• The Accountant - 2016 - character Christian Wolff played by Ben Affleck

Avoidant personality disorder

• Finding Forrester – 2000 – character of William Forrester played by Sean Connery^[15]

Bipolar disorder

• Michael Clayton – 2007 – character of Arthur Edens played by Tom Wilkinson^[16]

Borderline personality disorder

• Mommie Dearest – 1981 – character of Joan Crawford played by Faye Dunaway^[17]
• Fatal Attraction – 1987 – character of Alex Forrest played by Glenn Close^[18]
• Single White Female – 1992 – character of Hedra Carlson/Ellen Besch played by Jennifer Jason Leigh^[19]
• The Crush – 1993 – character of Adrian Forrester played by Alicia Silverstone^[20]
• Mad Love – 1995 – character of Casey Roberts played by Drew Barrymore^[20]
• Girl, Interrupted – 1999 – character of Susanna Kaysen played by Winona Ryder^[21]
• Thirteen – 2003 – character of Evie played by Nikki Reed ^[22]
• Silver Linings Playbook – 2012 – character of Tiffany Maxwell played by Jennifer Lawrence^[23]
• Welcome to Me – 2014 – character of Alice Klieg played by Kristen Wiig^[24]

Conversion disorder

• Tommy – 1975 – character of Tommy played by Roger Daltrey^[25]

Dependent personality disorder

• What About Bob? – 1991 – character of Bob Wiley played by Bill Murray^[26]

Dissociative identity disorder

• Primal Fear - 1996 - character of Aaron Stampler played by Edward Norton^[27]
• Split - 2016 - character of Kevin Wendell Crumb played James McAvoy^[28]

Folie à deux (shared psychotic disorder)

• Dead Ringers – 1998 – characters of Beverly and Elliot Mantle played by Jeremy Irons^[29]
• Bug (2006) – characters of Agnes White played by Ashley Judd and Peter Evans played by Michael Shannon^[30][31]

Kleptomania

• Häxan^[32]

Obsessive–compulsive disorder

• The Aviator – 2004 – character of Howard Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio^[33]

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

• The Odd Couple – 1968 – character of Felix Ungar played by Jack Lemmon^[34]

Post-traumatic stress disorder

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower – 2012 – character of Charlie Kelmeckis played by Logan Lerman^[35]
• Iron Man 3 – 2013 – character of Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr.^[36]

Schizoaffective disorder

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day – 1991 – character of Sarah Connor played by Linda Hamilton^[37]

Schizoid personality disorder

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – 2002 – character of Gollum^[38]
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – 2003 – character of Gollum^[38]
• Lars and the Real Girl – 2007 – Lars Lindstrom^[39]
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 2012 – character of Gollum^[38]

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

• Taxi Driver – 1976 – character of Travis Bickle played by Robert De Niro^[40]

Schizophrenia

• A Beautiful Mind – 2001 – character of John F. Nash played by Russell Crowe^[41]
• Donnie Darko – 2001 – character of Donnie Darko played by Jake Gyllenhaal^[42]
• The Voices – 2014 – character of Jerry Hickfang played by Ryan Reynolds^[43]
• Words on Bathroom Walls – 2020 – Character of Adam Petrazelli played by Charlie Plummer^[44]

Stuttering

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975 - character of Billy Bibbit played by Brad Dourif^[45]
• The King's Speech – 2010 – character of King George VI played by Colin Firth^[46]
• IT – 2017 – character of Bill Denbrough played by Jaeden Martell^[47]

Substance use disorder

"Drugs listed from most addictive, harmful or destructive to least (from most to least dangerous, based on a 2007 scientific research study."^[48]

• Colossal – 2016 – character of Gloria played by Anne Hathaway^[49]

See also

• Mental illness in fiction

Notes

References

• Danny Wedding, Mary Ann Boyd and Ryan M. Niemiec, Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology, 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA, Hogrefe & Hufer Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-88937-292-6. Movies and Mental Illness – Hogrefe Publishing
• David J. Robinson, Reel Psychiatry: Movie Portrayals of Psychiatric Conditions, Rapid Psychler Press, 2003, ISBN 1-894328-07-8.
• Glen O. Gabbard and Krin Gabbard, Psychiatry and the Cinema, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2nd ed., 1999, ISBN 0-88048-964-2.
• Otto F. Wahl, Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness, Piscataway, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8135-2213-7.