Presenting The Ward : A Study of the "Educational" and Three National Institute of Mental Health-Approved Films (U.S. 1950s)

Abstract: The subject of mental illness and the various disorders associated with it, is frequently sensationalized and capitalized upon in visual art forms. In cinema, many narratives have addressed or challenged public conceptions of mental illnesses, raising concerns about socially relatable consequences such as stigma. The main body of this thesis is structured around mental health educational films produced for didactic use within the United States during the 1950s. Following the end of the Second World War, the formation of the United Nations and the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the late 1940s, the 1950s is argued to constitute a shift in approach on how mental health treatment was to be presented to the public. Topics such as illness, post-war, stigma and institutionalization are explored in three case studies – Man to Man (Irving Jacoby, 1953), Mental Hospital (Leyton Mabrey, 1953), and Back Into the Sun (Fergus McDonell, 1958).