The role of film in enhancing intern clinical psychologists’ understanding of borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Psychologists-in-training are often presented with textbook definitions and descriptions of individuals presenting with psychopathologies. A major challenge for such texts is to effectively convey the relational issues and interpersonal dynamics of the mental disorders. The current study explores the role of film in enhancing intern clinical psychologists’ understanding of borderline personality disorder by specifically utilising the films Sylvia and Black Butterflies. A qualitative, phenomenological study was conducted with 15 clinical psychology interns at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Gauteng, South Africa. The collected data consisted of responses to open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews and was analysed according to an interpretive phenomenological analysis. Although the analysis was conducted inductively, the researcher also made deductive inferences from the data based on contemplations about the link between archetypes and images and learning and archetypal experiences. The importance of and connection to 21st-century learning skills, the creative learning spiral and a pedagogy of play were also taken into consideration while analysing the data. The findings of the current study suggest the ability of the two films to draw one in and to cause one to emotionally connect with the characters. Furthermore, films form an opportunity for trainees to practice psychodynamic formulations and not only focus on biological reductionisms of the disorder.