Guilty Except for Insanity

Guilty Except for Insanity is a compelling and insightful look into the stories of some of the residents of the Oregon State Hospital. The documentary explores how the mental health system itself is dysfunctional when suffering people resort to criminal activity before being able to receive the mental health care they need. Interspersing these portraits with informative interviews with experts on the guilty except for insanity defense, the film portrays the stories of patients with intelligence and compassion. I found this documentary in keeping with the perceptiveness of Dr. Haaken's other films on the intersection of psychology and social justice, such as Queens of Heart: Community Therapists in Drag and her most recent film, Mind Zone: Therapists Behind the Front Lines.

This is a unique documentary that takes viewers on a remarkable journey into one of the most famous psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Focusing on several individuals who have plead insanity for their crime, the film digs into the murky boundaries between guilt and innocence and traces the workings of the system from the perspectives of patients and those charged with their care. This is an excellent documentary for teaching, because it locates compelling personal stories within their larger institutional and social contexts. Refusing the kind of voyeurism so typical of films about "insane asylums," Guilty Except for Insanity acknowledges the complexities of human relationships--familial, social, and institutional.

Another brilliant film by Prof. Janice Haaken. Rich in nuanced attention to the complexities of the interlocking systems of mental health and criminal justice (what Michel Foucault would call systems of biopolitical control), Guilty Except for Insanity attends to the human stories of those seeking care in this maddening system. The impact of the retrenchment in community health services is made clear. In addition to cultural studies, visual culture and interdisciplinary courses, the documentary is an excellent resource for educators in the fields of nursing, social work, psychiatry, psychology, criminology and legal studies.

Guilty Except for Insanity looks at a world that most people are only familiar with through movies like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ", but this documentary is anything but Hollywood..Here one sees the lives of regular people who have gone down the path that our society determines appropriate for people who are caught up at the juncture of the judicial system and psychiatric care. I am struck by how the patients and hospital staff are shown as demystified real individuals stuck in an imperfect system. This film does not romanticize "craziness" or " insanity". It shows a more complex situation without villains or boogey men.Instead, the viewer sees the mundane yet troublesome situation that the patients must deal with. This view is honest, and never sensational in an intentional way, but the impact takes the viewer to a deeper understanding of the tangled up system that some of our most vulnerable persons find themselves. I found myself wanting to cheer for the patients' successes and I felt a new respect for both the patients and the staff who care for them.