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Abstract

In Cinema e Loucura-conhecendo os transtornos mentais através dos filmes (Cinema and Madness-getting to know mental disorders through movies), authors J. Landeira-Fernandez and Elie Cheniaux invite the reader to join a meeting between science and art. The book approaches mental disorders though a constant dialogue between Psychiatry and Cinema, proving an interesting reading for those who enjoy one of these fields, and an mandatory reading for those who appreciate both; in addition, while reading the book they have the opportunity of enjoying usefulness and pleasure at the same time: learning and entertainment. Accessible to the general public, but specially designed for those interested in psychopathology, the book provides a good example of how it is possible to teach and to learn about mental disorders without giving up the cultural and human background of the mental health area practitioners. It presents very clearly the diagnostic criteria of psychiatric nosology textbooks (including signs, symptoms, and syndromes) and emerging them to the spectator experience of the seventh art, aiming to complement the debate. The characters in the movies give life to diagnostic manuals as they become clinical cases that illustrate the disorders described, stimulating both formal knowledge and the esthetical emotional experience in that contact with mental disorders. Seems interesting? Well, this book broadens yet more the understanding of the clinical presentations by bringing in the first chapter different historical and social scenarios in which