Looking for films directed by women where therapy or therapists are central – not just present
First post here, hope this is allowed!
I’m putting together a university seminar on representations of therapy and therapeutic culture in American literature and film, and I've noticed a striking pattern: almost all the films where therapy is genuinely central are directed by men (think Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting, Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, Ramis’s Analyze This).
I’m looking for films by female (or non-binary) directors where therapy, therapists, or psychiatric institutions are not just part of the backdrop but the actual subject, that is films that interrogate what therapy does, who it’s for, and what kind of norms or subjectivities it produces.
To be clear about the distinction I’m drawing: a film where a character happens to see a therapist doesn’t necessarily qualify. Nicole Holofcener’s Walking and Talking (1996), for instance, is a film I like a lot, but therapy is part of the urban middle-class milieu rather than the central subject. I’m looking for something where the therapeutic relationship, the institution, or the cultural logic of therapy is what the film is really about.
Any suggestions, including documentaries, international films, or lesser-known titles, very welcome. The gap itself might be the point, but I’d love to be proven wrong.