Hi and welcome to Mental illness in Films,

films are a perfect way how to explore the human mind, especially when something in our brain "goes wrong".  This term our goal is to learn about a few mental illnesses, that are quite common among children and adolescents and adults  - if you are more interested in children's psychopathology, please sign in to our course Mental illness in movies in the spring semester.  

We have prepared this online support so that you can enjoy yourselves while learning about interesting psychological illnesses and perhaps (at least we try to) be surprised by some facts. 

Please do feel encouraged to go through the materials at your own speed and study as much as you want. 

The subject is now completely online and as we have learnt due to the coronavirus crises, it still works pretty well :)  

So how does it work? 

In step one, please go through the materials we provided. 

In step two, watch a film. All films should be available either on Netflix or HBO or by easily googling the title + watching online. Every film has a discussion link open. 

In step three you comment on the movie. To pass successfully, you need to post at least one comment about each film. You don´t need to post an original comment, answering someone else´s question or opposing the presented opinion counts as well. Please really read the discussions and try to engage with others in meaningful conversations. That way we can all learn. We have also divided you into smaller groups to make discussions more meaningful and private - please always post comments to your seminar group.  

There is no real deadline for comments, but for technical reasons we would really appreciate it if you could keep up with the schedule - each film has a recommended period to be studied and it would be a great help if the comment was posted during this period (it also helps with discussion).

Please try to post comments that will deal with the subject - mental illness portrayed in the film - we have provided you with some questions, that might help, but you don´t have to answer them all and you may very well choose an entirely different topic if you wish so. Do not comment on whether you liked or disliked the movie - that´s not the point and doesn´t really help in-depth discussion :). Also please do not describe what is happening in the film - we have all seen it, and the discussion should be about your, fact-based, opinion. 

I will try and answer any unclear questions at the end of the term. 

Also do not forget to sign up for the exam date once you watched and contributed to every topic. There are 4 different dates provided however on these dates, there is no exam prepared for you: by signing for the exam you confirm that you have fulfilled all the requirements for this course.

If you feel disturbed by any topic, please don´t force yourself to watch the whole film or study all the materials. It´s ok to skip things that make you uncomfortable. Just let me know. 

If you have any further questions please send them to my assistant - Aneta Bočková ( 498951@mail.muni.cz ). 

So... are you ready to start?

Great.