Turn Box Office Movies Into Mental Health Opportunities: A Literature Review and Resource Guide for Clinicians and Educators

Hollywood films are widely used in the field of mental health for educational and therapeutic purposes. While the field’s academic and clinical work usually lacks entertainment and amusement, Hollywood films embrace these characteristics and infuse them into mental health topics. In addition, Hollywood films have "good production values. " Whereas the typical clinical videotape of a patient interview or psychotherapy session is frequently inaudible, and the participants are partially obscured in awkward positions, Hollywood movies are specifically constructed so as to be seen and heard and their movie depictions of psychosocial components of clinical practice rather than videotapes of actual clients avoid issues of confidentiality (Misch, 2000). Their subject matter, which sometimes can be fairly dry, can powerfully affect many people because Hollywood films combine impact of images, music, dialogue, lighting, sound and special effects. Movies combine realism with imagination and compress lots of information into a limited time period (Hesley and Hesley, 2001). They have been found to successfully enhance class lectures (Bassham & Nardone, 1997; Bluestone, 2000; Hyler & Schanzer, 1997) as well as the therapeutic process (Hesley and Hesley, 2001; Wolz, 2003b; Zur, 2006). The purpose of this article is t