Jamie, A colleague of mine at UMass wrote a great book on disabilities in American cinema, and while it doesn't focus on mental illness, I think you'd find it helpful for your study. Check out "The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies" by Martin F. Norden (Rutgers University Press, 1994). The Library of Congress section on mental illness in film (there is none on "madness") is PN1995.9.M463. There have been 7 books written on the subject, 2 of which are in English: PN1995.9.M463 F54 Fleming, Michael. Images of madness: the portrayal of insanity in the feature film (1985) PN1995.9.M463 R23 Rabkin, Leslie Y. The celluloid couch: an annotated international filmography of the mental health professional in the movies and television (1998) I'm sure you'll find more when you research individual films on the subject (e.g., "Psycho" and much of Hitchcock, "Peeping Tom", "I Am Sam", "David and Lisa", "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden", "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", etc.) By the way, a small film with a big performance by Rob Lowe (yes, it's true) playing a mentally challenged man is "Square Dance". Best wishes with this project. Dr. Timothy Shary Assistant Professor of Screen Studies Clark University Worcester, MA 01610 508-793-7285 ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite