Psychiatry Meets Film: »Nostalghia« (Tarkovsky, 1983)

Cinema is a way of appropriating the world, something that can not only enrich our life experience but also extend it, Andrei Tarkovsky stated in his essay "Time Within Time." It is plausible to assume that the director was also reflecting on his work "Nostalghia," released the year before. The film-turned-painting tells of a journey to Italy that becomes a symbol for an incessant search for lost connection, for community. And the film addresses this with the law passed in Italy in 1978 to close psychiatric institutions. The reform was about strengthening community-based care for people with mental illnesses. "Freedom Heals" is the motto that summarizes the approach of the Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia – and which has lost none of its power to this day.

Through the visually powerful film "Nostalghia," we encourage an exchange on how the separation of psychiatry and society was broken down historically and continues to this day. Following the film, Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Becker and Claudia Helmert from the working group "Psychiatry and Society" at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital Leipzig will discuss the history of psychiatry and current research on the stigmatization of people with mental illnesses.