Catatonic Schizophrenia

An instructional-record film, presenting a clinical demonstration of characteristic symptoms of stuporous catatonia. A psychiatrist reviews the chief characteristics of the catatonic-type schizophrenic and then presents three male patients who are shown first without being stimulated directly other than by camera and lights. The doctor then speaks to them individually, eliciting little symptoms are demonstrated: paucity of movement; ’waxy flexibllity; automatic obedience to simple commands; negativism; mutism; fixed facial expressions. Writer and director, Robert Anderson Case presented by Heinz Lehmann M.D. Schizophrenia:Catatonic Type (lOM). Black and white; 12 minutes. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada for the Department of National Health and Welfare.