Symptoms in Schizophrenia

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DATE: 1930

LENGTH: 12 min

CATEGORY: Clinical & Surgical, Research & Documentation, Silent, Black & White

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: James D. Page, University of Rochester School of Medicine

Summary

Shot with only a stationary camera, this film records eighteen patients in scenes of 15 to 45 seconds. The inmates, white adults of both sexes, stand or sit, mostly outdoors, at a red-brick institution with porches and well-kept lawns. This is not the closed, Dantesque world of The Snake Pit (1948)… Each patient performs a single symptom. Extravagant bodily symptoms predominate: gestures, tics, and postures…Read The Essay

Supplementary Materials

Stills from Symptoms in Schizophrenia

A ‘hebephrenic’ patient, whose symptoms are characterized by repetitive ‘silly’ gestures.

A masked woman wearing a patterned dress stands outside and makes pointing gestures to someone or thing off screen.

A patient angrily denounces an imaginary enemy and maybe the cameraman.

A masked woman patient sits in front of a brick wall next to a window makes hand gestures.

A woman demonstrates the typical repetitive gestural routine of a hebephrenic.

A male patient wearing a white mask sits in front of a brick wall and gestures with his fingers extended.

A ‘hebephrenic’ patient, whose symptoms are characterized by repetitive gestures. Symptoms in schizophrenia National Library of Medicine #8700092A

Schizophrenia (dementia praecox) is the most prevalent of mental disorders. About one per cent of the population eventually develop it.

A female patient wearing a white mask sits in front of a brick wall and gestures with her hands clasped under her chin.

A ‘hebephrenic’ patient, whose symptoms are characterized by repetitive gestures.

It is essentially a chronic disease of unknown origin, characterized by marked personality disintegration. Symptoms in Schizophrenia

In general appearance schizophrenics resemble normal individuals. All body types are represented. Distinction lies in their mental content and behavior. Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenics are divided into four clinical groups: simple, paranoid, catatonic and hebephrenic. Symptoms in Schizophrenia

A patient stands in the shadows and gestures out a window.

A patient angrily addresses an imaginary enemy.

Delusions and hallucinations occur in most hebephrenic, catatonic and paranoid patients. The latter often give evidence of these symptoms by conversing or arguing with imaginary individuals. Symptoms in Schizophrenia

A patient standing outside looks directly into the camera.

A patient performs a routine of repetitive gestures.

A woman in a chair makes large gestures on a porch in a chain-link enclosure.

A patient conducts a lively conversation with an imaginary partner.

A man in white lifts a patient's arm. The patient wears a white mask.

A ‘catatonic’ patient permits his limbs to be molded by an ‘examiner.’

A group of men on benches on the grounds of a large building.

Patients on the grounds of a mental institution in New York State.

Digitized Films on Mental Disorders at the National Library of Medicine

Explore films on mental disorders in the NLM Digital Collections

Learn more about NLM holdings of mental disorder films in the Guide to Mental Health Motion Pictures

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