Question: To what extent are the psychological thriller movies/shows accurate?

James Munro answered on 6 Mar 2019:

Hey hami!

There are as many answers to this question as their are movies. I’m going to choose 3 examples of my favourite thrillers. Be aware, there are going to be spoilers in this answer!

Shutter island: Leo plays a character who – it is left for the viewer to decide – may or may not be an inmate in a psychiatric prison. The film suggests that Leo might have had such a traumatic past experience that he imagined he was someone else, and over time he so strongly believed in his own lie that he could no longer remember the truth. The creation of multiple personalities like the movie is part of Dissociative Identity Disorder. There is some evidence that it can happen to someone after some trauma. However, there is a LOT of argument about this disorder because it has differeny symptoms depending on where someone is diagnosed in the world.

Inception: The idea that we can go into someone’s mind and change their thoughts. It is like some sort of advanced hypnosis. Theoretically thoughts are formed in the brain and we could manipulate them if we knew enough about the brain and had the right tools to do so. But if we can ever do that, it is a long way off. A much closer example can be found in social manipulation on the internet in recent years. Certain organisations used data from millions of facebook pages to predict behaviour and intentions, and then used targeted adverts, notifcations and media to try to change those behaviours and intentions without people realising. In effect, they were trying to incept an idea into brains without the person noticing. Not doable with a machine while asleep, but who needs that when you can do it awake?

Prisoners: A man with learning disabilities is imprisoned, suspected of abducting another man’s children. This movie has many awful scenes in which the person with learning disabilities is seen as instantly suspicious and capable of doing these crimes. He is made an easy target, and this is used in the movie to reflect the stigma and uncertainty that some societies still have about people different from themselves. The effect of trauma, anxiety and worry on the father’s ability to stay calm and reasonable is fascinating to me. In my own research, I have found that worry can make it much harder to do easy things – let alone deal with awful crimes.

So aye, many thrillers do a decent job but for the sake of entertainment they can often make psychology seem simplified. I hope you found my answer useful – Great question!