Academic Journal
Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research.
| Τίτλος: | Psych ward gothic: melodrama, hospitalisation anxiety and a case for the humanities in psychiatric research. |
|---|---|
| Συγγραφείς: | Morrison A; Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine, Hamilton, Canada alastair.morrison@medportal.ca. |
| Πηγή: | Medical humanities [Med Humanit] 2026 Aug 20; Vol. 52 (3), pp. 392-399. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Aug 20. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: BMJ Pub. Group Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 100959585 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1473-4265 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 1468215X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Med Humanit Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Kennebunkport, ME : BMJ Pub. Group, c2000- |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Humanities* , Anxiety* , Hospitals, Psychiatric* , Hospitalization* , Psychiatry*, Humans ; Motion Pictures ; Empathy ; Personal Autonomy |
| Περίληψη: | This article offers a critical assessment of representations of psychiatric hospitalisation in modern Western societies, with the goal of informing clinicians' approach to communication and reassurance around involuntary hospitalisation. With evidence from film and fiction, it shows that these representations overwhelmingly fall into the genre of melodrama and, further, that this genre encodes conflicting but simultaneous historical anxieties about individual self-determination and community belonging, which become engrafted to the psychiatric hospital as a subject. With this critical assessment, the article also offers a model of how humanities scholarship can inform clinical psychiatry at the level of content, as distinct from the emphasis on listening skills and empathy in recent discussions of the humanities in psychiatry. (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2026. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.) |
| Competing Interests: | Competing interests: None declared. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: education; film; literature; medical humanities; psychiatry |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20251109 Date Completed: 20260820 Latest Revision: 20260820 |
| Update Code: | 20260821 |
| DOI: | 10.1136/medhum-2025-013521 |
| PMID: | 41207789 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1473-4265 |
|---|---|
| DOI: | 10.1136/medhum-2025-013521 |