Family Life

Adapted by David Mercer from his TV play In Two Minds, Ken Loach’s grim and harrowing 1971 British drama, also known as Wednesday’s Child, was closely associated with the then-fashionable theories of R.D. Laing. It describes the history of a troubled 19-year-old girl gradually driven into schizophrenia by the naive understanding of her family. She winds up in a mental hospital where she makes some progress thanks to a Laingian group therapist, but after he’s dismissed she’s treated with drugs and electroshock, with devastating results. With Sandy Ratcliff and Bill Dean. (JR)

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