Question by butterfly: any ideas on good psychological documentaries?
Hi i am studying psychology at the moment in college and i am determined to go into higher education with it. I would like to set up a psychology club in my college for people with the same interest. My idea is to show psychology documentaries or films so can anyone think of some really good ones? please 🙂 ?
Best answer:
Answer by Jessa
I’m most interested in crime and cults relating to psychology.
I’ve seen some good documentaries on Charles Manson and the Manson family. I think the most recent one I saw was on A&E. This may be relevant since a member of the Manson family recently got denied parole for the umpteenth time.
I also saw an interesting one on Jim Jones and The People’s Temple that was called “Jonestown: The Life and Death of The People’s Temple.” You learn what Jim Jones actually “taught” his people, what kind of people his cult attracted, why he moved them so far from the US, how it started, etc. Very interesting.
If you’re interested in cognitive abilities, you could try and find a documentary about the man who inspired the movie “Rainman.” He is an autistic man with extraordinary abilities. His name is Kim Peek.
Feral children is also another interesting topic. I saw a great documentary in high school psych about feral children, but I’m not sure what it was called.
One thing I must say though, if you are in high school, you’d probably want to screen the documentary with a teacher first to get their okay. Many documentaries are extremely straightforward and don’t leave anything to the imagination. For example, a crime documentary may be very gory and inappropriate for your environment.
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