6 Inspirational Movies on Recovering from Psychological Disorders

Cinema has long been a powerful medium for shedding light on the human experiences particularly the struggles and triumphs of those battling with psychological disorders. Films that explore mental health not only raise awareness but also inspire and instill hope by portraying resilience, self-discovery and healing. In this article, we will explore six inspirational movies that delve into psychological disorders, showcasing the courage of individuals who confront their challenges and emerge stronger. 

A Beautiful Mind (2001) 

A beautiful mind is an American biographical drama, which depicted the story of Nobel prize winner and mathematician John Nash and his battle with Schizophrenia. The film was directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe. The movie tried to depict the symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusion of persecution, hallucinations and lack of interpersonal relationships. The movie begins by portraying Nash as an introvert. He is deeply focused on his studies while in Princeton’s math department.

Nash developed the game theory, and that got him into a position at MIT. He meets and marries Alicia. As days pass, Alicia notices that Nash slowly distances himself from the real world. He becomes deeply involved with Agent Parcher in the CIA, where he has been recruited to break codes. His delusion of persecution became prominent. Alicia took him for treatment.This movie also clearly depicts the struggles faced by caregivers.

By portraying the difficulty Alicia face while taking care of him and their new born baby. Nash later learns that Charles, a friend of him and Agent Parcher was all his hallucinations. And with the help of his wife, he shows improvement and involved in the academic community. Finally, he has received the Nobel prize for his work. 

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) 

Silver Lining Playbook is an American romantic comedy drama film. It was written and directed by David. O. Russell and starring Bradley Cooper. The movie begins with Pat, hero of the film, who was being institutionalized for 8 months due to his mental health condition bipolar disorder. After 8 months of institutionalization, he was allowed to live in his parents’ house. His primary focus was to reconcile with Nikki, his ex-wife. The precipitating factor was him witnessing his wife’s affair with the other person. Everything was fine for some days until His symptoms (mood swings) began troubling him.

Since, he decided not to have tablets. Later one evening, he met his friends at a party, where he was introduced to Tiffany, a young woman. Both started sharing their own mental health problems and medications they take. Then, Tiffany was attracted to Pat but he wanted to reconcile the relationship with his wife. In between he underwent episodes of mood swings and decided to take tablets regularly. The mood disturbance of a bipolar patient was clearly portrayed in the film. Pat asked Tiffany to deliver his letter to Nikki, which she never did. Instead, she forged a letter to make him feel happy.

Pat asked Nikki to be his partner for a dance competition, where he meets his ex-wife. He left the wife by saying that Tiffany loves him more than her and left the place. This movie clearly depicts the need and importance of medication and the support from a person can create a huge impact in life of a mentally ill person. 

Good Will Hunting (1997) 

Good Will Hunting is an American drama film starring Robin Williams. It is written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant. This movie deciphered the PTSD, emotional trauma and its aftermath. Will, a twenty-year-old boy, was a self-taught maths genius. He was working as a Janitor in in MIT, who was recently paroled after completing a prison term. One day Professor Gerald Lambeau gave a complicated math problem to test his students. Will solves the problem anonymously.

Lambeau was astonished and gave another problem which is even more hard to solve. And he found that it was will who did this. Lambeau was astonished by his work. Meanwhile Will meets Skylar who is about to graduate from Harvard University. Later on, other day Will was imprisoned for a Chaos he created along with his friends. Lambeau saves Will from imprisonment and asks him to study under him while attending therapy to overcome his aggressive behavior. Many therapists felt hard to build rapport with him. However, Sean, Lambeau’s friend treated him. Sean challenged Will’s defense mechanism. After so many sessions, Will became more comfortable with him. When Skylar asked Will to move to California but he refused and told her he is an orphan and his foster father abused him when he was a child.

Will breaks with Skylar and also left Lambeau by destroying his work on Maths. Sean convinced and made him accept that “it’s not his fault.” Will broke out and cried, the moment he realized and felt relief. Then Will went to meet Skylar and start his new life. 

Inside out (2015) 

Inside out is an American animated film directed by Pate Docter. The film centers around a young girl named Riley Anderson and her five personified emotions—happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust—while focusing on emotional regulation. The directed started the script at 2009 after witnessing the change in personality and emotions in his daughter as she grew up. 

Psychologists and neuroscientists also worked in developing the story to accurately show up how the mind works. This movie starts with immigration of Riley and her family from Minnesota to San Francisco. The movie clearly depicts the emotions Riley undergoes while transitioning and adapting to a new city. Riley’s brain starts saving her experiences into memories and send it to long-term memory each night. At the age of 11, Riley moves from the place where she grew up to a new city due to her fathers’ transfer.

The way she learns to cope and balance with all her emotions display the struggle that we everyone of us undergo in our daily life. Anger convinced the disgust and fear to run away from Minnesota to regain her happiness, like once she had. At the same time, joy discovered and played the memory, when she lost in a hockey game but she became happy once her father and friends encouraged her.

Meanwhile anger disables all the consoles and made her board a bus to Minnesota. But joy made her realize that her parents always made her happy whenever she felt sad. Then she returned back to San Francisco to her parents and said that she misses her old life. Her parents stated that they miss that too. At last happiness and sadness worked together to make new memories, friends and hobbies for Riley. Late in her 12 years of age, Riley adapted to the life of San Francisco. This movie clearly depicts the rollercoaster of emotions and depicted how it attains the normal state.

The Father (2020) 

The movie “The Father” is a psychological drama film speaks about dementia (a memory problem) in an old age person and the struggles they undergo. The movie, directed by Florian Zeller, stars Anthony Hopkins. Anthony is an old man who has severe memory problems, where he constantly forgets important life events, his own daughter and struggles to get over this. Anthony’s elder daughter Anne visits him in the flat where he lives after he has driven away several carer (one who takes care). Anne arranged carers to take care of him.

Anthony explains that he is suspicious about the carer, as her misperceived that she had stolen his watch. But Anne found that it was him who misplaced and forget where he kept his watch. Anne shares her father that she is planning to move to Paris with her boyfriend, Paul. But Anthony felt hard to comprehend this as he failed to recollect any man in her life after the separation of James her ex-husband. The next day he encounters an unknown man who introduced himself as Anne’s husband. When Anne returned, she appears to be a new person for him.

When a new carer came for the interview, Anthony recollected memories about his other daughter Lucy, who passed away in an accident. He couldn’t recollect the memories of his daughter death. Anne takes Anthony to a doctor and he refused to accept that he has a memory problem. The film beautifully depicts Anthony’s struggles with his memory problems and Anne’s sacrifices for her father. The film ends by Anthony wakes up and walks out of his flat, finding himself in the hospital. He identified the nurse, Catherine as his daughter Anne and Laure. He breaks down in tears and says he want to meet his mother, and Catherine consoled him. This film depicts the difficulties and struggles of the patient of dementia and caregivers. 

The Perks of being a Wallflower (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartfelt coming-of-age drama that follows Charlie, a quiet and introverted high school freshman dealing with depression, anxiety, and repressed childhood trauma. Struggling to fit in, he finds solace in writing letters to an anonymous friend. His life takes a turn when he befriends two charismatic seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him into their world of music, parties, and deep conversations.

As Charlie experiences love, friendship, and heartbreak for the first time, his unresolved trauma begins to surface, leading to emotional turmoil and a mental breakdown. With the help of his teacher, family, and friends, he slowly uncovers the source of his pain and takes the first steps toward healing. The film beautifully explores themes of mental health, self-acceptance, and resilience, capturing the ups and downs of adolescence while reminding us that even in our darkest moments, we are not alone.

What Mental Health needs is more sunlight, more candor and more Unashamed conversations.

Glenn Close