The cinema has an important presence in modern life, not just for its contributions to entertainment and the economy but also because of what it tells us about ourselves and our societies. Psychiatry's appearance on the big screen reflects psychiatric practice at the same time as shaping our understanding of it. Real to Reel critically examines psychiatry's relationship with those it manages by examining seven key films which use that relationship to raise important questions about the public understanding of psychiatric power, and the role of psychiatrists in the social construction and manipulation of both personality and social reality. Ron Roberts analyses how real and cinematic psychiatry deal with the treatment of women, ethnic minorities, young people as well as the relationships between voluntary and involuntary psychiatry, psychoanalysis and biological psychiatry, and fiction and reality. His sometimes dramatic conclusions demonstrate just what is at stake for us all.