Madhouse Movies: Essays on the Depiction of Psychiatric Institutions

When filmmakers depict the inner world of psychiatric institutions, the products of their imagination range from horrific to comical, from fact-based depictions to entertainment far removed from reality. Madhouse movies raise issues and provoke fascination.

This collection of new essays by psychiatrists, film scholars and educators presents a broad overview of movies about madhouses or insane asylums in cinema. It correlates these portrayals with current events to show how these films eithe...