This riveting documentary shows the transformation of psychiatric care largely due to the pioneering work of Dr. Heinz Lehmann. When Dr. Lehmann fled Nazi Germany to Montreal in 1937, he devoted the next 60 years to finding more humane treatments for the mentally ill. One of his dramatic achievements, captured on archival film, was a series of experiments involving intense human contact with his most regressed women patients. They had spent their days smearing feces on the wall, but by the end of the treatment were participating in activities.

But Dr. Lehmann’s greatest legacy came with a single pill, Largactil, the first anti-psychotic drug used in North America. By successfully treating patients with this drug, Lehmann introduced the world to the idea that biology plays a role in mental illness.

While Untangling the Mind is a record of Lehmann’s perseverance and humanity, it is also an important historical record. Extraordinary archival footage of doctors performing electric shock therapy and lobotomies demonstrates how far psychiatric medicine has come.

The film visits one of the world’s leading brain research centers in Washington, DC, where Lehmann’s remarkable work is being taken to the next level. This film will be an indispensable resource for courses in the history of psychiatry.

Chris Statuette Columbus Film Festival, 2000
Western Psychology Association, 2000
Best Documentary, Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival, 2000
Certificate of Merit, Golden Gate Awards Competition, 2000