MovieChat Forums > Elling (2001) Discussion > Non-American View of Mental Illness

Non-American View of Mental Illness

posted 18 years ago by Devans00
11 replies | jump to latest

One thing that struck me about this movie was a lack of medication and medical industry presence in this movie supposedly about mental illness. In America, it seems like anything having to do with an institution has each person on multiple prescriptions. The relaxed social worker was also different than how American social workers who tend to be portrayed as stressed out, hard as nails, women who are too battle wounded to show compassion.

I'm sure if Elling and Kjell Bjarne were in America, they'd be living in cardboard boxes probably strung out on crack or cheap alcohol. Or if they were lucky living in some squalid hotel. Definitely not treated like worthwhile human beings who need a little help getting adjusted to society.

This quote from the N.Y. Times Film review by Stephen Holden says it very well
How to Be (a Bit) Sensible About Mental Illness
Published: May 29, 2002, Wednesday, http://tinyurl.com/mnze3

Neither character conforms to the diagnostic clichés of contemporary psychiatry. Not a word of clinical jargon is heard in the film, based on a best-selling Norwegian novel by Ingvar Ambjornsen. The absence of terms like bipolar, schizophrenic, borderline and paranoid, not to mention the whole galaxy of garden-variety neuroses with fancy labels, proves refreshing. That absence forces you to recognize the degree to which clinical language is used to dehumanize and stigmatize people by translating human traits into sets of symptoms with subtle value judgments attached.

[–] outsider-2 18 years ago

Excellent point, I did not even think of that! It was a very interesting movie

"I talk to god but the sky is empty"
SP

[–] ghuseth 17 years ago

By the way, do the two guys definitively have asperger's syndrome? It's never said, but I'm sure they do.

[–] outsider-2 17 years ago

Interesting idea - that could be relevant, I had never heard of that syndrome before
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergers

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] ipsbay 17 years ago

BRAVO! Brilliantly stated.

[–] Laks83 15 years ago

They were definetly not Aspergers.

Their main problem was that they had been sheltered all their lifes and was afraid of the outside world. Anxiety is my best guess.

I have the feeling their mental problems were mainly enviromental, not genetic.

[–] ipsbay 17 years ago

Wait -- don't tell me...American?

[–] frogca 12 years ago

>I'm sure if Elling and Kjell Bjarne were in America, they'd be living in cardboard boxes probably strung out on crack or cheap alcohol. Or if they were lucky living in some squalid hotel. Definitely not treated like worthwhile human beings who need a little help getting adjusted to society.

I suppose a comparable character would be Karl from Sling Blade. He was given some help when he was sent out, but nothing like the gentle touch of a more socialist state. Then again, SB was an independent movie, not Hollywood.

[–] Devans00 12 years ago

frogca, it makes me wonder how much better off society would be to change to the Norway model of treating mental health. Obviously, the big institution way of the pre-Ronald Reagan America didn't work. The current leaving vulnerable people to fend for themselves on the street, to be bounced in and out of jail doesn't work.

So why not try the method used in the movie Elling?

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

[–] frogca 12 years ago

> frogca, it makes me wonder how much better off society would be to change to the Norway model of treating mental health.

I think both your country and mine (Canada) could stand to be more socialist - for the people rather than for big businesses. Treating mental health is just one area where that would be relevant.

[–] 12 years ago

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