Still Alice: Mental Illness in Pop Culture

Mental Illness in Pop Culture

In this episode of Mental Illness in Pop Culture, we analyze the impact of early familial Alzheimer’s in Still Alice, with Julianne Moore in the Academy Award-winning title role. We focus not only on how Alice and her family deal with her increasing cognitive impairment throughout the film but also reflect on identity loss, family dynamics, birth order roles, existential themes, the film’s importance for counselors and other professional helpers, and our own fears as we contemplate how this topic relates to our families and possible futures. This episode is dedicated to my birth father, Joe Rowland, 1939-2018. In this podcast series, we focus on pop culture portrayals of mental health issues and professional helping, believing that public perception is both reflected and influenced by popular media.