Lo stato della mente

Starting with a captivating title and moving on to true events about early years of psychotherapy and defying the norms, and the evolution of doctor-patient relationship. This was a lovely portrayed peace of psychiatry history. I have to commend the alpha level of acting from everybody in the movie as it was filled with emotions of success, disappointment, fear with hope and belief in one's vision. An enjoyable movie indeed

This is an engrossing film with a very intriguing premise: if you treat 3 paranoid, schizophrenic patients each of whom thinks he is Jesus Christ isolating them from other mental patients in a state hospital, will one dominate the others or will they learn to bring joy, hope and companionship to their fellows? Dr. Alan Stone and his Psychology intern, thinks he can do the latter.

This story unfolds in the 60s when the accepted treatment for psychiatric patients is harsh and inhumane by today's standards. It consisted of either shock therapy, use of drugs or lobotomy. Dr. Stone would not have none of those because he believes these so-called clinical protocols simply "warehoused" the patients, not treated them. He believed rather in exploring their mind, understanding it by means of gentle interactions with the patients. The establishment thought this was crossing the boundary of "normal clinical protocols." But he asserts that without risks, there can be no breakthroughs.

Peter Dinklage stands out as patient Joseph Cassel. He inhabits the role and you deeply empathize with him and what happens to him. The same is true with Walton Goggins as Leon Gabor with all his pent-up libidinal urges and philosophical ruminations about identity. And we certainly relate with Richard Gere as Alan Stone whose persistence amidst resistance from his colleagues is commendable.

So, the question that the viewer asks is, did he succeed? There's only one way to find out.

This is reminiscent of cuckoo's nest but more dramatic and a bit less comedic. The cast, though, is what I loved about this movie. Excellent acting!!! It's a little slow at times, but be sure to watch this to the end!

I started out watching this film with some skepticism as psychiatric patients are so often misrepresented. As someone who worked in a state psychiatric facility for a couple of decades, I'm quite familiar with paranoid schizophrenics, and I have to say they were aptly portrayed in Three Christs. I'm not familiar with the study on which it is based but it did influence a lot of what was to come in treatment for these kinds of patients. The message that came across is one that I incorporated into my practice: treating people with respect, dignity, warmth and caring does wonders. The delusions may not go away, but they recede into the background as the patients start to feel cared for and better about life in general. That "Dr. Stone/Stein" was a warm and caring doctor is unquestionable, at least according to the film, and that in itself is a great model for any psychiatric student to emulate.

Aside from that, the film, I believe, would have a limited audience as most people are not terribly interested in the subject. Even someone like me who is interested in the subject found the film boring in select passages. Overall, the actors did a good job with the material.

Milton Rokeach was an American social psychologist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s worked in a Michigan mental institution and devised an approach to study three different men, each who claimed to be the real Jesus Christ. His approach was to put the three men together and have sessions, eliminating their contact with other patients.

The movie is less of a biography and more of a dramatization of what all went on. Richard Gere is in the role of the doctor, and they changed his name to Dr. Stone. Truthfully the movie moves pretty slowly most times and I can understand that some viewers might become bored and abandon the viewing. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library and found it worthwhile. All the actors, most very accomplished, are uniformly good in their roles.

This is just a well-made movie of a curious chapter in human psychology.