What is it about?
This is an article about one of the most important motion pictures dealing with mental illness. In 1948, the motion picture The Snake Pit was released to popular and critical acclaim. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film told of the mental illness and recovery of one patient, who survived overcrowding and understaffing and was treated by a neo-Freudian psychiatrist known as Dr. Kik. It was based on a novel of the same title by Mary Jane Ward, who had been treated at Rockland State Hospital in New York. Building upon exposés of horrid hospital conditions in the press, The Snake Pit helped motivate reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill. Via unpublished correspondence and drafts of the film’s screenplay, this article explores the populist and antifascist themes in The Snake Pit, which came from the director, screenwriters, and the politics of the immediate post-WWII era. It also describes the case history of Mary Jane Ward and her treatment by Gerard Chrzanowski, the real “Dr.Kik
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Why is it important?
The motion picture Snake Pit changed the way the public thought about mental illness. It also influenced the U.S. government's policies toward mental illness, its treatment and research on its causes.
Perspectives
My most stunning discovery was the last scene in the film's screenplay, created by the screen writers but replaced secretly by the producers. It showed the patient Virginia to be socially conscious, pledging to continue the struggle for reform from the outside once she was released. This was replaced by a saccharine, anti=feminist scene in which Virginia asks her husband to restore her wedding ring to her Anger as they leave the hospital. In my article I explore the progressive politics of the screenwriters, one of whom was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
Professor Ben Harris
University of New Hampshire
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Snake Pit: Mixing Marx with Freud in Hollywood., History of Psychology, August 2021, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/hop0000188.
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