Abstract

Schizophrenia has been described as one of the most severe and enigmatic of mental disorders. It is thus both a disease in bio-medical terms and a trope prevalent within popular culture. This thesis explores schizophrenia as a metaphor in film, examining its historical antecedents, its bio-medical definitions and its idiomatic uses. It is my argument that cultural, theoretical and bio-medical uses of schizophrenia inform our understandings and misunderstandings of this disease. Tuning into schizophrenia's increasing frequency in modern parlance prompted my primary research question: How is schizophrenia deployed metaphorically in film? I discuss the paradoxes implicit in using schizophrenia as metaphor through (a) a discussion of the idea of metaphor, and (b) through a brief recounting of the history of madness, but primarily through (c) an interrogation of three dominant metaphors that my research reveals. These include: schizophrenia as monstrosity, schizophrenia as a way to describe a divided self, and schizophrenia as a divine gift. An exploration of experimental documentaries by Arthur Lipsett reveals an alternative way of expressing the illness, and thinking through the poetic dimensions of communication.