Bellevue: Inside Out is a documentary that features the experience that patients undergo at Bellevue Hospital, particularly with regard to the psychiatric emergency room and wards. With an interest on the life of psychiatric people portrayed in films that sparked among people, the documentary does a good job at revealing exactly what goes on in such institutions. However, there is more than meets the eye. A critical look into the content of the documentary reveals a world of individuals, some of whom exhibit profound psychological conditions that to the mere eye does not necessarily mean much. Some of the patients are in deed experiencing immense challenges that have been brought along by their severe conditions.
For instance, there is the part where a psychiatrist interviews one of the patients and asks her how she can be of help to her. The patient then responds by saying, “It is not how you can help me. It is how can I help you?” This is clearly an individual who is suffering from an acute mental condition. She is reportedly suffering from extreme grandiosity which explains the deluded manner in which she even reacts to simple questions she is being asked by the psychiatrist. Such reactions tend to be the manifestation of most psychological conditions which interfere with the patients’ mental state causing some sort of dysfunction in their cognitive processes. The patient in this case for instance appears to believe that she is a neuropsychiatrist. She goes forth to try to attempt to turn tables.
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There exist various patients who suffer from different conditions. It is worth noting that there are patients in the film who show what one might term as mild psychological conditions and others portray very intense conditions. The latter constitutes what can be categorized as abnormal behavior. Whilst this is not a readily accepted term in psychology, it denotes to the levels of mental conditions that prompt a person to exhibit behavior that by normal human standards can be considered to be abnormal. In the film, there are patients whose conditions are not as serious which is evident from their behavior and response as they are being interviewed. For some, even interviewing them is difficult based on their unruly and spontaneous nature. This film prompts me as an individual to go back to the basics of psychology as a field and the primary purpose for which it is intended, and how its principles can best be practiced in a bid to alleviate the suffering of such individuals.
Bellevue: Inside Out however evokes a number of questions within me. Does the film disrupt the normal ambience that the patients are used to causing some of them to behave in a manner that they would not in their usual setting? What are some of the measures that the team which spent a considerable amount of time at the facility take to avoid any plausible confrontations with the patients? Finally, did they find it difficult to stay emotionally detached to the patients?
Psychology is a broad subject and a lot can be drawn from what it advocates for to the scenes that are depicted in the film. The question on abnormal behavior is a key consideration when analyzing such a film and it is inherent that as long as there exists people who undergo the various mental conditions, this will almost certainly occur in some of them.
