Shrink Rap (Psychology Books) discussion

I am a school couselor for a private high school. I do not do any academic support, but focus mainly on emotional support. In addition, I also teach Health and next year I will be teaching Psych 101. My area of "speciality" is adolescent behavior with a strong focus on eating disorder and self-harming behaviors.
In Health class we are about to discuss Eating Disorders. I would like to show them the Thin documentary and was wondering what you guys thought. And if there are any other films/documentaries that I can have the students watch. I know there was some controversy surrounding the documentary, but I cannot remember what nor can I remember how it would negatively effect my students.
I would appreciate any guidance
Thanks,
Jo

Thin is a good docu, but I guess I'd like to know your purpose in showing it to high school students? If it's to teach them about ED, then I'm not sure this is the film. The film follows mostly adult women who have EDs serious enough to be hospitalized. The film seems overly voyeuristic. It is also not hopeful, which I guess is somewhat accurate when it comes to full recovery from an ED--I'm sure you know the relapse rate is high and I think mortality is like 20% or something close. Anyway, the film portrays most of the therapists and staff at Renfrew as VERY jaded and burnt out (my opinion). This is a ducu meant to shock, and I think there are better programs for teens that feature women who have recovered and can speak to their full experience of the disorder. There is an old NOVA program on this topic that is available to educators (check PBS.org), and there is a film called Killing Us Softly by Jean Kilbourne. She focuses on body image in advertising, but it's a good catalyst for the ED conversation w. teens.

Thanks for getting back to me Cathy. I will look into the other videos. I may even have old NOVA one.
Most of the teaching I will be doing is through lecture and discussion. As awful as this sounds the students I am working with respond well to "shock". I am mostly worried about triggering or inadvertantly teaching them ED behaviors. The kids that I see privately are not (or do not) seem to be struggling with EDs.
The video is just a follow up to the lecture. I have time to think it over.

i had a problem with the documentary (though i have it requested from the library to view again) because of the way it ended - there was no "hey! call this number if you suspect you or someone you love may need help!" or whatever. i thought it was actually very . . . risky. there were some patients who refused to get better despite being sooo sick, others that got kicked out do to health insurance running out - i mean, i know it's a depressing disease with the highest death rate in PIs, but. (i thought the accompanying book was much better.)

if you want to show a movie related to ED, nova's "dying to be thin" is pretty good - i think it highlights why different people start, and it does end with somewhat of a hopeful note. it's not too voyeuristic either (polly, one of the main characters in "thin" recently died).

there are a lot of made-for-tv movies that are actually quite good (but hard to find) and often only associated with sports - there's "the perfect body" and "little girls in pretty boxes" for gymnastics and "secret between friends" is tangentially related to volleyball . . . "for the love of nancy" is also a classic. but.

good luck!

Hi:
I saw "Thin" and have the companion book. It is a sobering documentary and there was a recent article in the news that another one of the young woman shown recovering committed suicide recently. I recommend very highly a book called "Stick Figure" by Lori Gottlieb which is an outstanding depiction of anorexia. She publishes her childhood diaries from when she was ill. It is a fascinating, but very sad, book.

Best of luck!

Did Polly committ suicide? I saw that she died, but am unsure as to how.
FWIW, I showed the documentary and the kids got a lot out of it. I was worried, but in the end it worked out. So sad about Polly.