Manicomios de cine: la representación de las instituciones mentales y sus procedimientos en la gran pantalla

Abstract

Mental institutions have always attracted the cinema as scenarios and they have nearly always appeared in a very negative and pessimistic light. Proof of this is that in horror movies they have often been used to represent ghastly, spooky places, possessed by terrible occult forces.             The view offered by the cinema of mental institutions has undoubtedly influenced the perception of the public at large of these places, considered centres of reclusion where not only do the staff fail to cure the patients but these are further damaged and alienated. Although it is true that for centuries this was the reality of psychiatric hospitals, it is also true that the situation began to change –quite radically in fact- several decades ago. Nevertheless, the cinema continues to offer the image typical of asylums for the insane a hundred years ago.             Here we offer an overview of the reality of mental institutions, together with an exploration of how movie directors, since the dawn of the cinema, depict them as a basis for their work.