A Conversation on Mental Illness and Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper

Alyssa Rosenberg over at ThinkProgress conducted a great interview with actor Bradley Cooper and mental illness advocate Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen on how mental illness is portrayed in the Oscar contender Silver Linings Playbook. Over the holidays, I watched the film with my family and was struck by the honest, brutal, but by no means condemning depiction of life with bipolar disorder and mental illness in general in the movie. Both Bradley Cooper and Dr. Van Dahlen give insightful commentary into how family, doctors, and cops treat Mr. Cooper's character Pat in the film: what works, what doesn't, and how psychological issues have often been ignored in the older generation (in this case, Pat's father) even as they are passed to a generation that does seek (or receive by court order) help. It's well worth the read!