Psychiatry in Popular Culture

About the Doctor

Dr. Packer is a psychiatrist in private practice and an Asst. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry& Behavioral Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai (NYC)

Her Psychiatric Times series on "Why Psychiatrists are Physicians First" explains her philosophy of psychiatric medicine. Her article on "What Wordsworth Knew: Daffodils as Antidepressants" expresses her interest in the intersection between medicine, psychiatry & the arts, as does her research into the art of Bosch, Breughel, and Grunewald. Other award-winning studies connect European ergot epidemics to mystical movements. She sees Bosch's art and comic book art as kindred cousins; hence her affinity for comics imagery as well as dream-inspired Symbolist and Surrealist art. Her treatment techniques range from psychopharmacology, CBT, nature cures, and Jungian-style dream analysis. Her interpretations combine contemporary superhero stories with classical, Eastern and Near Eastern myths.

Her books include Dreams in Myth, Medicine and Movies (2012) (Choice's best academic title of 2003); Movies and the Modern Psyche (2007); Superheroes and Superegos: the Minds behind the Masks (2010); Cinema's Sinister Psychiatrists (2012); Neuroscience in Science Fiction Films (2014) and a co-edited, two-volume A History of Evil in Popular Culture: What Hannibal Lecter, Stephen King and Vampires Reveal about America (2014). To learn more about Doctor Packer’s psychiatry practice or to contact her directly, please follow this link.

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