Introduction
The excitement never diminishes…the hot, buttered popcorn, the deep, comfortable seats, the dimming of the lights and then the larger than life faces on the screen. Memories of the movies come in all forms for me. My earliest one is lying on the elementary school’s gymnasium looking up at the makeshift sheet screen. Another of my sister and I climbing onto the roof of our family’s brown paneled station wagon singing along to Grease is the Word. Or being at the King/Queen Theater screaming with high school friends at Friday the 13th (yes, the actual FIRST one)! Memories such as these exemplify the emotional impact of the film experience. Not only the actual experience but the stories they tell. To be transported to a variety of times and places, to experience great loves, horrific tragedies, and humorous interactions as they come to life is a gift – one that I would like my students to appreciate. More specifically, I would like my students to understand the stories behind the clinical symptoms of psychological disorders. Statements such as this one by Nathan Filer are compelling enough for students to delve into and understand the story behind mental illness:
Mental illness turns people inwards. That's what I reckon. It keeps up forever trapped by the pain of our own minds, in the same way that the pain of a broken leg or a cut thumb will grab your attention, holding it so tightly that your good leg or your good thumb seem to cease to exist.1
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