By Lauren Anthony

What is a psychological documentary?

• A psychological documentary is one which looks at the mental state of mind of certain individuals.

• Usually presented in a reflexive format, psychological documentaries are usually presented with the documentarist in front of the camera, presenting and discussing to the audience.

• Documentarists often look at mental illnesses by researching into the topic, and interviewing those with mental disorders in prisons and psychological institutes.

I, Psychopath• About a man, Sam, who

identifies himself as a psychopath. The documentary investigates his assumption.

• Ian Walker documented Sam, and takes him on a diagnostic journey to be analysed by psychologists and neurologists.

• Ian didn’t consider the reality of spending time with someone with a serious personality disorder, and went straight into investigating Sam’s condition.

How Mad Are You?• This documentary takes 10

volunteers, 5 of which have psychiatric disorders and the remainder don’t.

• Exploration of character traits, traits of mental illness and symptoms.

• Expository and observational nature of the documentary.

• Investigates the line between sanity and insanity to see whether the mental patients expose their illnesses or not.

Multiple Personalities

• Documentary by Michael Mierendorf 1993.

• Looks at the severity of multiple personality disorder.

• Mierendorf looks at why people with multiple personality disorder have their minds split and how life experiences affect the serverity of their condition.

• A reflexive and expository documentary with a lot of detail.

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death• Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a

documentary with a very controversial tone, on the horrors of psychiatry, of punishing and persecuting of the innocent and promoting Fascism, racism and atheism.

• It was shown to be the foundation for the Holocaust, apartheid and for Communism.

• Alleged to be a Scientology propaganda

• Psychiatrists in Nazi Germany essentially branded innocent people as ‘mentally unstable’.

Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles

• Theroux's documentaries have often experienced a disapproving reception due to their controversial and expository nature.

• Made a documentary on paedophiles in a Californian mental hospital called Coalinga State Hospital.

• Patients were shown to be having a very affluent lifestyle considering they had such serious convictions and mental conditions.

• At Coalinga, patients are given a fair amount of freedom; they are given a gymnasium, and a shopping mall inside the hospital. They are also allowed sexually suggestive images on their cell walls.

• They are put under a series of tests to determine whether they are suitable for release. However, this is a very unlikely occurrence.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa7dvh_louis-theroux-a-place-for-paedophil_shortfilms

Nick Broomfield’s ‘Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer’

• Nick Broomfield looks at the life of Aileen Wuornos through an expository perspective.

• Was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a hitch-hiking prostitute.

• She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders, and this documentary looks at her life and her death in detail.

• Investigation into Aileen's upbringing revealed drug-taking on a massive scale, alcoholism, truancy, a disintegration of family values, abuse and incest.