Authors of Psychiatry and the Cinema, Professors Krin and Glen Gabbard refer to years 1957-63 as the Golden Age of psychiatry in the cinema. During this period, psychiatrists were portrayed as the �authoritative voices of reason, adjustment and well-being,� despite there being no evidence to substantiate this reputation. Psychiatrists featured in many films during this period and the money kept rolling in for them. Research grants for psychiatrists in the United States rose 580% between 1957 and 1963, and continued to rise . Over the next 30 years, psychiatric research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) increased a further 873%.

By legitimizing themselves on the silver screen, psychiatrists popularized the fraudulent notion that drugs, shock treatment and psychosurgery held the secrets to happier living. A drug era was ushered in, spurred on unwittingly by Hollywood. Society has yet to recover from it.

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