15 Absolutely Essential Documentaries On Psychology
Psychology and neuroscience are often very complicated topics to understand only from reading. There go 15 documentaries about psychology essentials, divided by topics so that you can immerse yourself in these exciting sciences.
Next We offer you a selection of documentaries about psychology that can change the way you see things Take good notes!
1. The Act of Killing (2012)
During the Cold War, Colonel Suharto came to power in Indonesia in a coup d’état. Thereafter, he led a campaign of mass murder of communists that resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. The Act of Killing is a documentary nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in which Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, two former mercenaries under Suharto, explain and recreate the murder crimes they committed years ago as part of their work.
The film is made up of murder scenes and the confessions of paramilitaries who have never faced punishment for what they did and who are still protected by the government today. In this story you can see clear cases of depersonalization and of reification of the enemy, very frequent processes in contexts of systematic extermination and genocides.
A reference in documentaries on social psychology. It is a film based on the famous book that Naomi Klein published in 2007 and has the same name. It explains how certain unpopular political measures can be implemented using fear to create a permanent state of exception.
3. Psychological Warfare (2010)
This documentary focuses on the maneuvers and techniques with which public opinion has recently been directed towards certain issues, making millions of people think in a certain way through propaganda and Public Relations. Among the people who appear in the Psychological Warfare story are Noam Chomsky, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
4. Manufacturing Consent. Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
Philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky recounts the ways in which the general public is deceived, sometimes by publishing false data and sometimes omitting important information, so that ordinary citizens cannot make decisions freely. Chomsky argues that censorship is not necessary to create uniform and predictable states of opinion : To achieve this, it is enough to throw out huge amounts of insignificant data that mask the absence of important information.
What is explained here is an example of why freedom can only exist given certain premises (among them, having all the important information). If you have ever wondered why everyone has such similar opinions despite having the theoretical freedom to direct their lives, this may give you some clues.
Documentaries on Educational Psychology
5. The Finnish Phenomenon (2011)
This is a documentary about educational psychology and education for values . It examines the most admired educational system in the world: the Finnish one.
Argentine independent film that focuses on the problems of conventional education its effects on youth. Other models of the educational system are proposed, although due to the nature of the documentary, the possible solution to the gaps in the current educational system remains quite blurred.
Most of the following psychology documentaries are in the television documentary format and are shorter in length.
Documentaries on psychology and neuroscience
6. Mystical Brain (2006)
A group of researchers from the University of Montreal study the neural processes that occur during meditation and mystical experiences.
7. Total Isolation (2008)
What happens when your brain is left totally alone, deprived of stimuli? This documentary answers the question by investigating the brain activity of people in total isolation.
8. The Man with a 7 Second Memory
This short documentary examines the life of Clive Wearing, a man who, due to injuries to the hippocampus, suffers from retrograde and anterograde amnesia, just like the protagonist of Memento. Every 7 seconds, immediate memories of him fade.
9. Is Seeing Believing? (2010)
A tour of the brain and physiological processes that explain the optical illusions This fragment explains the McGurk Effect:
Documentaries on Developmental Psychology
10. Why Do We Talk?
The mechanisms of language, exposed in this interesting documentary. Essential for those students or psychologists interested in language development.
11. The Secret Life of the Brain (2002)
It focuses on the development of the human brain (and the psychological stages that accompany the process) throughout people’s lives.
Documentaries on psychology and mental disorders
12. Maria and I (2013)
Documentary focused on autism that analyzes the specific case of a person with this disorder. valuable if you want to know first-hand what an autistic person is like. You can see it here.
