This sophomore connects film and psychiatry
Nihal Kollath’s research project looks at how cinema’s depiction of psychiatric care has evolved and influenced audiences to think deeper.
Sophomore Nihal Kollath has always carried two passions with him: a love for film and an interest in psychology. Last spring, the biology major at Carolina found a way to bring them together through a research project that asked a simple but layered question: How have movies shaped the way people think about psychiatric care?
His project, titled “From Narrative to Practice: How Film Representations Shape Psychiatric Care Delivery,” examined two films separated by more than 50 years of cinema history. The first was the 1920 silent horror film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”; the second was 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
“With earlier films like ‘Caligari,’ it was about capturing sensationalism since psychiatric care was a relatively new field,” Kollath said. “It’s an old horror movie, so there were a lot of straitjackets and padded cells, that sort of thing.”
He contrasted that early image with the more complex picture painted in “Cuckoo’s Nest.” Kollath said the movie’s empathetic portrayal of patients, combined with its massive popularity, allowed audiences to view people with mental illnesses in a new light.
“It’s a film where we see people with mental disorders not as merely caricatures but people with wants or needs,” he said. “Of course, being a 50-year-old film, there are certain elements that have aged, but the movie is about these characters breaking free from the shackles of what society perceives them to be, and there are moments where we see them going on adventures and finding themselves.”
Kollath’s love of movies stretches back to his childhood, but one moment in high school changed the way he thought about them. Watching “Donnie Darko,” he realized that film could be more than an escape — it could carry psychological weight and tell stories that linger long after the credits.
“There can actually be real story told,” he said. “I like it a lot because that’s a real psychological movie that got under my skin.”
Carolina gave Kollath the opportunity to learn more about medicine. During his first year, he worked in a psychology-neuroscience lab, where his coursework often reminded him of the films that had shaped his imagination. Slowly, the two threads of his life began to weave together.
With guidance from Dorothea Heitsch, a teaching professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ Romance studies department who served as his faculty adviser, Kollath sharpened his focus. The collaboration, he said, pushed him to think about medicine in a more human way.
“I think a lot of people in the medical field can tend to treat people like a number,” Kollath said. “That’s why mixing the humanities and medicine is so vital. You can relate to the patient’s cultural understanding of certain things thanks to things like film and television.”
Looking ahead, Kollath hopes to expand his research during his time at Carolina. For him, the intersection of psychiatry and film is a field rich with unanswered questions and unexplored possibilities.
“With film, what you have is a persuasive vehicle for delivering a message,” he said. “And I think that’s a powerful thing that can shape public opinion and broaden understanding.”
