LAUSR

At Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents are taught psychopathology by reviewing various works in the horror genre through the curriculum known as Reviewing Mental Disorders through Reverent Understanding of the Macabre (REDRUM) [1]. The curriculum delineates multiple categories of mental disorders, each of which is highlighted by a fictional monster. For example, learners review a biographical account of the Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler to understand his ruthlessness; he was known for frequently impaling his enemies on stakes and reportedly drank their blood [2]. This allows students to appreciate Vlad’s influence on the creation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (released in 1897), who is sustained on blood and can be only be killed by being impaled by a stake. Through more detailed character and plot analyses, Dracula comes to serve as a metaphorical case study of antisocial personality disorder. Such discussions of both historical context and fictional symbolism allow for a rich and memorable lesson on a given aspect of psychopathology. Our course expands from the “categorical monster” such as the vampire to include other films that demonstrate a more straightforward, albeit fictional, portrayal of mental disorders. One such film is the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction [3] which serves as a case study of borderline personality disorder (BPD). This paper has two objectives. First, we will discuss Fatal Attraction’s main antagonist, Alex Forest, as a fictional depiction of BPD. Second, we aim to demonstrate the creative aspect of REDRUM that teaches psychopathology and reinforces critical thinking skills in our learners. We will achieve this by linking Fatal Attraction to a more contemporary film, Gone Girl [4] (2014), to review convergence of cluster B personality disorder nosology. This will involve reimagining parts of each movie’s timeline in order to strengthen the educational value of these vignettes.