Sad Girl Cinema (obviously) isn’t the final word in the ever-shifting space of screen representation and mental health! This is particularly in light of the fact SGC focusses on chiefly Hollywood examples, which is certainly not the only space for mental health screen culture. Here’s a small selection of incredible writing and publications on film and television to continue the conversation <3

Essays and Articles

Aashmita Nayar, These Bollywood Filmmakers Need To Learn From Deepika’s Campaign On Mental Illnesses Right Now, The Huffington Post

Aditi Natasha Kini, The Myth of Male Genius, Bitch Media

Abel Shifferaw, ‘Chula’ Is a Psychological Thriller Challenging the Continued Stigma Around Mental Illness in African Communities, Okayafrica

Aisha Harris, New Pop Culture Trend Alert: the Black Lady Therapist, Slate

Ann Hornaday, Uma Thurman, Quentin Tarantino and the costs of auteur worship, Washington Post

Anupama Chopra, A bumpy ride: Dear Zindagi review, Hindustan Times

Alaina Leary, How Media Prevents Us From Truly Empathizing With Disabled Characters, The Establishment

Allison P. Davis, TV Finally Figured Out Black Women Go to Therapy, The Cut

Anna Leszkiewicz, Ten years on, how Cassie from Skins’ eating disorder affected a generation of teenage girls, New Statesman

Anna Leszkiewicz, Is new Netflix drama To The Bone glorifying eating disorders?, New Statesman

Annie Tucker, Review of Bethel: Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan, psychoculturalcinema

Ariel Smith, Trespassed Lands, Transgressed Bodies: Horror, Rage, Rape, and Vengeance Within Indigenous Cinema, Bitch Flicks

Aaron Orbey, Mourning Through Horror Movies, The New Yorker

Angelica Jade Bastién, Mother My Madness, Doll Hospital Issue Three

Angelica Jade Bastién, What TV Gets Wrong About Mental Illness, Vulture

Angelica Jade Bastién, Why don’t women of color get to be mentally ill on TV?, Fusion

B.N. Harrison, The Unified Theory of Ophelia: On Women, Writing, and Mental Illness, The Toast

Brodie Lancaster, Really Funny, Rookie Magazine

C Wessels, J Van Kradenberg, I Mbanga, RA Emsley, DJ Stein, Television as a medium for psycho-education in South Africa: analysis of calls to a mental health information centre after screening of a TV series on psychiatric disorders, The Central African journal of medicine

Cate Young, “Dietland” and the Language of Fatphobia, Bitch Media

Eve Sturges, OCD and Me, Rookie Magazine

Hansika Kapoor, Dear Zindagi from a therapist’s perspective: Gauri Shinde’s film does much for mental health, First Post

Hannah Black, You are Too Much, The New Inquiry

Hannah Ewens, Meeting the People Who Make Mental Health Storylines On TV Look Realistic, Vice

Hunter Harris, An Appreciation of Molly’s Therapist’s Office on Insecure, Vulture

Imran Siddiquee, Why Do We Let “Genius” Directors Get Away With Abusive Behavior?, Buzzfeed

Izzy Leslie, Talking about Trich, Doll Hospital Issue Five

Janiera Eldridge, Why Gothika exposes the hidden thoughts of every black woman who’s ever experienced mental illness, Graveyard Shift Sisters

João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia; Hercílio Pereira Oliveira; Arthur Guerra Andrade; Francisco Lotufo-Neto; Dinesh Bhugra, Using selected scenes from Brazilian films to teach about substance use disorders, within medical education,
Sao Paulo Medical Journal

Kamayani Sharma, Good Treatment: Dear Zindagi’s radical break from Bollywood’s portrayal of mental illness, The Caravan

Karthika S Nair, It’s Time Films Began Portraying Mental Illness With Greater Sensitivity, Feminism in India

Kelsey Ford, Slashed Beauty: On Female Masks in The Skin I Live In, Eyes Without a Face, and Under the Skin, Bright Wall/Dark Room

Kristina Wong, I Thought Being Miserable Was Just Part Of Being Chinese American, xoJane

Laura N., ‘Madness in the Margins: Bollywood Heroines and the Spectre of Mental Illness’, Doll Hospital Journal Issue Three

Lakesha Lafayett, Dark Times Under the Radar: Black Women and Mental Illness, Adios Barbie

M.Shergilla, S.Kumar, An Exploration of Portrayal of Mental Illness in Bollywood Films, European Psychiatry

Mansoor Malik, Imran Trimzi, Gerard Galluci, Bollywood as Witness: Changing Perceptions of Mental Illness in India (1913–2010), Applied Psychoanalytic Studies

Maria Turner Carney, How Queer Women’s Mental Health is Depicted in Movies, After Ellen

Marianne Eloise, What the death of Chris in Skins meant to a generation of British youth, Dazed Digital

Maya Golden, I Am Rocket: A Reflection on PTSD from a Sexual Trauma Survivor, Black Girl Nerds

Megan Abbott, The Virgin Suicides: “They Hadn’t Heard Us Calling”, Criterion

Mel Perez, Mental Health and the Strong Black Woman Trope, Black Girl Nerds

Mey Rude, Who’s Afraid Of The Big, Bad Trans Woman? On Horror and Transfemininity, Autostraddle

Nyasha Junior, Don’t we hurt like you? Examining the lack of portrayals of African American Women and Mental Health, Bitch

O.F.Aina, Mental illness and cultural issues in West African films: implications for orthodox psychiatric practice, Medical Humanities

Parul Sehgal, The Forced Heroism of the ‘Survivor’, New York Times

Pier Dominguez, Not All Queer Love Stories Are Called Universal, Buzzfeed

Prateek Sharma, Dear Indian filmmakers, have you done your homework on mental illness?, Women Making Films

Riese, 105 Trans Women On American TV: A History and Analysis, Autostraddle