It was gratifying to receive the Society of Media Psychology and Technology’s 2023 Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Media Psychology and Technology.  President Don Grant presented the award at the most recent APA convention in Washington, DC.  I received the award after participating in a delightful session that included brief presentations by more than a dozen former Presidents of the Society, including some of the leading figures in media psychology.

The award recognizes my longstanding involvement with and commitment to Division 46, including service as a Past President and two terms as your APA Council Representative.  I have always regarded the Society as my “APA home,” and I cherish the numerous friends I have made in the Division these many years.

 The Distinguished Lifetime Contributions Award recognizes decades watching and writing about films.  My work, much of it with my collaborator, Dr. Ryan Niemiec, has focused on mass media portrayals of mental illness, psychologists, and other mental health professionals in contemporary films.  This interest resulted in the publication of the first edition of Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology (Wedding & Boyd, 1999).  Three subsequent editions have appeared since that first publication, and I recently submitted the manuscript for the 5^th edition of this book (to be released in November, 2023). Movies and Mental Illness has been translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Polish.  

 Given the success of early edition of Movies and Mental Illness, Hogrefe asked Wedding and Niemiec to write a follow up book, Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Promote Character Strengths and Well-being.  A second edition of this book was published in 2013.  This book has been translated in Portuguese, Korean and Turkish.

I have also had the opportunity to publish numerous articles about movies and the media; selected publications are included in the References.  

One of the gratifying things about writing books about films is that it opens up incredible speaking opportunities, both in the United States and abroad.  I have lectured about movies and mental illness in Dunedin, New Zealand; Mumbai, India; Beijing, China; Berlin, Germany; Okinawa, Tokyo, Yokahama, and Osaka, Japan; Hong Kong; Taipei, Taiwan; Nice, France; Cape Town, South Africa; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Santiago, Chile; Nottingham, United Kingdom; Zhuhai, China; Paramaribo, Suriname; and Toronto, Canada.  Almost all of these invited presentations were at universities or international conferences.  I’ve given similar talks at every medical school in Thailand, and dozens of psychology programs in South Korea, both in conjunction with Fulbright Fellowships.  I also had the opportunity to lecture to hundreds of psychology students in Turkey when I gave a Zoom talk for numerous to Psi Chi chapters around the country.

I wrote Movies and Mental Illness because of my conviction that films are a powerful medium for teaching students (in psychology, social work, medicine, nursing, and counseling), engaging patients, and educating the public about the fascinating world of psychopathology. In addition, I wrote the book because I genuinely love watching and talking about movies. While the title is Movies and Mental Illness, this book also addresses serious problems that do not reflect mental illness per se, including neurodevelopmental disorders, physical or sexual abuse, screen time for children, deep fake technology, celebrities and mental illness, and violence. I am tremendously grateful to the many members of the Society for Media Psychology and Technology who have recommended films to include in my books over the years.   

The first edition of Movies and Mental Illness grew out of a series of lunchtime conversations between a psychiatric nurse (Mary Ann Boyd) and me.  Inevitably, these conversations included some discussion of recent films we had seen, and whether we though the portrayal of whatever illness was depicted was accurate.  The notes grew into a series of index cards and the index cards eventually became the first edition.  Later, a gifted young psychologist and cinephile named Ryan Niemiec joined the team.  Mary Ann and Ryan have both moved on to other projects, but I have persisted in watching hundreds of new films and adding some discussion of almost all of them in this new edition.

I am a clinical psychologist and a college professor, and I’ve found that the judicious use of films dramatically increases students’ and clients’ understanding of abnormal behavior. For example, when lecturing about alcoholism, I sometimes supplement my lectures with a “demonstration” of delirium tremens using The Lost Weekend to illustrate withdrawal, and Denzel Washington’s character in Flight to illustrate tolerance. Before a lecture on bipolar disorder, I ask my students to watch Touched with Fire or Silver Linings Playbook. All four films provide intensity that simply cannot be captured by a classroom lecture or the printed page.

Being a leader of the Society of Medical Psychology and Technology has been one of the defining features in a long and wonderful career.  Now I am at the end of that career, but I like to think my work will outlive me.  I think it might.  For now, know that I am genuinely grateful for recognition by my colleagues, peers and friends, and I very much appreciate receiving the 2023 Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Media Psychology and Technology.

References

Nakousi, M., & Wedding, D. (2014).  El Desinformante. La coartada de Mark Whitacre (The Informant! The Alibi of Mark Whitacre).  In M. Nakousi & D. Soto (Eds.), Cine y Casos de Negocios. Una mirada multidisciplinaria (Cinema and business cases. A multidisciplinary approach).  Cuarto Propio.

Niemiec, R.C., & Wedding, D. (2006). The portrayal of psychotherapists in movies.  Advances in Medical Psychotherapy and Psychodiagnosis, 12, 73-83.

Niemiec, R., & Wedding, D. (2013).  Positive psychology at the movies 2: Using films to promote character strengths and well-being  (2^nd ed.). Hogrefe.             

Wedding, D. (2000).  The portrayal of alcohol and alcoholism in the western genre.  Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 46, 3-11. 

Wedding, D. (2005).  Popular films portraying mental disorders.  In G.P. Koocher, J.C. Norcross & S.S. Hill (Eds.), Psychologists’ desk reference (2^nd ed., pp. 497-501).  Oxford University Press. 

Wedding, D. (2008). Using films as an adjunctive treatment in psychotherapy. Journal of Employee Assistance, 38, 10-11.

Wedding, D. (2012). Foreword. In Moira Nakousi (Ed.), Movies and organized crime: A multidisciplinary look. Santiago, Chile: Cuarto Propio. This book was published in Spanish as Cine y Criminalidad Organizada: Una Mirada Multidisciplinaria.

Wedding, D. (2017). Public education and media relations in psychology.  American Psychologist, 72, 764 –777. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000202

Wedding, D. (2024).  Movies and mental illness: Using films to understand psychopathology.  Hogrefe.

Wedding, D., & Boyd, M.A. (1999).  Movies and mental illness: Using films to understand psychopathology.  Boston, MA:  McGraw-Hill. 

Wedding, D., & Niemiec, R. (2003). The clinical use of films in psychotherapy.  Journal of ClinicalPsychology/In Session, 59, 207-215.

Wedding, D., Wongpakaran, N., & Wongpakaran, T. (2017).  International movies and media psychology.  In G. Rich, U. P. Gielen, & H. Takooshian, Internationalizing the teaching of psychology (pp. 61 – 72).  Information Age Publishing.