Reel Reflections: Movies for Cultural Awareness and Psychotherapy

In a refreshing and knowledgeable manner, the authors present a thesis on social justice, identity and anti-racism through the use of media. Drs. Comas-Díaz, Abdulrehman, and Wedding combine film and miniseries as lenses through which to “witness ourselves and others,” and as ways to increase cultural awareness in a manner that is both poignant and entertaining. The use of arts to address multiculturalism is compelling, in particular because it allows for greater cognitive and emotional understanding of a most complex topic.

The book is geared primarily to multicultural psychology, educators and to some extent, psychotherapists and counselors. In reviewing this book for Division 29 of APA, I have restricted my evaluative comments here to an audience of psychologists and other mental health practitioners who are engaged in the study and practice of psychotherapy. For this reason, my remarks may seem very limited to students of sociology, multiculturalism and cinema or film critiques. For me, the major question here is how this book can be useful to psychotherapists.

Book Structure

The book is organized into 10 chapters, each begun with a precis and analysis of a particular film that portrays a crucial cultural factor. Questions are offered readers to consider while focusing on the film content. Each chapter concludes with a second set of “critical thinking” questions that bring out the cultural content and make it more personal to the reader.

In every chapter, the authors focus on one important aspect of cultural understanding. They include, 1) Family, 2) Relationships, 3) Sex and sexuality, 4) Community, 5) Work, 6) Politics 7) Immigration, 8) Horror and fantasy 9) Star Wars and social justice and 10) Genocide, apartheid, civil rights and colonialism.

Chapters share subsections which make comparisons more viable. These include 1) Prejudice, 2) Cultural identity, 3) Stereotyping 4) Indigenous people, 5) A presentation of additional on-topic movies that add color and depth, 6) and those critical thinking questions. That consistency does a lot to bring the book together as a whole.

The Chicken or The Egg?

There has long been debate about whether movies and television reflect and mirror cultural issues already present in a society, or whether they create them. Does a film like “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (Kramer, 1967) open up a dialogue and generate movement toward greater interracial comfort. Did it help lead to the end of restrictive “miscegenation” laws including the landmark Loving v Virginia (1967) case?  Do movies like Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) show us a reality of race, psychology, and the subtle violence ofcontrol? Does Ava DuVernay’s miniseries, When They See Us (2019),a psychologically compelling study of how institutions, media, and social fear collude to destroy innocence, powerfully depict systemic racism, collective trauma, and the dehumanization of Black youth in America? Are these reflections of reality?

The authors do not attempt to side with either position, but instead take a dialogical approach looking at how these perspectives of mirroring and creating are in constant interaction with each other, reciprocally and dynamically influencing perceptions of cultural and subcultural phenomena. Perhaps a film like Hidden Figures (Melfi, 2016) or Black Panther (Coogler, 2018) offer examples of a genre which addresses cultural and psychological perspectives on race, power, identity and gender roles in a manner that represents the present and simultaneously offers a different future.

Is it Relevant for Psychotherapists

I have to admit that in my many decades of teaching, researching and doing clinical work, I have often used media such as film or music to enhance student understanding of material in a more emotional manner. For example, my couple therapy classes are often exposed to music from Broadway shows like “South Pacific” to Steve Goodman and more recently to Taylor Swift. These often have a powerful impact on marriage, love found and love lost. In fact, I have been known to have a final exam question in an advanced couple therapy class asking students to develop treatment plans for the couples in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (Nichols, 1966) or Bergman’s (1973) Scenes from a Marriage.

In part that is why this title was so enticing for me. I am also familiar with work by Drs. Comas-Diaz and Wedding in the cultural psychotherapy field. I see this work as a way for students and current clinicians to better understand and empathize with their clients, especially those who come from marginalized and non-Western backgrounds.

From this framework, Movies, Miniseries, and Multiculturalism, offers many plusses. From a constructionist perspective, movies offer a special form of storytelling that adds visual representation to the narrative. We know from many years of psychotherapy that clients have stories about their lives, about therapy and about a way of being in the world. Indeed, therapist tools such as storytelling (Honos-Webb et al, 2001), metaphor (Shapiro, 2021) and Ericksonian hypnotherapy (1984) are powerful means of intervention. Honos-Webb et al use the term “storystoned” to describe the way a story may entertain, engross, challenge, inspire and motivate by providing a non-linear connection in the therapy hour. Movies offer those stories and if well done, allow us to identify with characters in an emotional way. We then have an opportunity of working through some personal issues semi-externally through the characters and their actions.

Therapists can connect more closely to the experiences and internal narratives of their clients, and may be able to help them indirectly through the visual arts and storytelling. For example, there are some depth issues that accompany marginalization and social injustice that may be missed in a therapy session. Indeed, as Shapiro et al (2025) have indicated a therapist may have to introduce issues of acculturation and assimilation in therapy, because clients are unable to articulate some of it or they may be loath to introduce such topics for fear of being misunderstood or labelled as somehow less worthy.

Of course, this brings up an aspect of the book that may be somewhat less useful to therapy. Despite the profound character development and direction portrayed in many of the excellent films cited, they tend to focus primarily on one of four major aspects of understanding someone from another culture or subculture. Three of these were described as early1948 by anthropologists, Kluckhohn and Murray (1948). They postulated that to understand someone from another culture they opined we need to explore in terms of human universals (existential issues such as mortality, isolation, freedom and responsibility, in terms of their specific culture (e.g. Chinese, Polish, Nicaraguan) and individual differences (how this person is different from a cultural stereotype). To these characteristics, Shapiro et al. (2025) added a fourth variable — the significant process of acculturation and assimilation.

What Movies, Miniseries, and Multiculturalismoffers is a valuable exploration of one of these variables: specific cultural influences. The films chosen explore these cultural influences with depth and poignancy as the protagonist clashes with larger cultural issues. There is a particular influence shown of socio-economic influences in such films as Parasite (Bong, and Han) (2019), Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle, 2008), and The Hate U Give (Tillman, 2018). A clinician informed by such films may be more likely to better connect with the inner workings of clients from other cultures. Understanding their challenges at a visceral level can dramatically increase empathy.

Knowing that a person living in North America, is originally from South India and speaks Tamil or Hindi at home is important, potentially necessary. Yet in a clinical setting, it is hardly sufficient in understanding how they are indeed different from other ex-patriots from their native land, and how much Western influence they have incorporated into their lives at conscious and even unconscious levels. Thus, from a clinical perspective, a psychotherapist will gain much in knowing about an individual’s culture, but will have to fill in those parts of the whole person in their culture, relevant human universals, individual differences and levels of acculturation. In short, a more integrated look at intersectionality.

My addressing this focus of Movies, Miniseries, and Multiculturalism applicability to psychotherapists and psychotherapists-in-training, likely represents a narrower focus than the authors intended, particularly in multiculturalism. I do believe that the book offers substantive value in culture, media, identity, prejudice, anti-racism, and social justice as well. For a clinician, any addition in understanding structural racism or denigration of those from different backgrounds and values is of course, quite important and useful.

This brings up a second wish for the book. Although the perspective of the authors became clear as the reading evolved across chapters and film choices, it would have been a real benefit to know the filter through which they see culture and marginalization prior to digging into the content per se. The clearest indication actually appears in an Afterward on pages 209 to 211 at the end of the text. Here they describe their focus on “A historical and ongoing flagrant disregard for the experiences of marginalized people.” (p211). They also described their goals of anti-racism and advocacy. Perhaps their goal was to offer the reader a process of coming to an understanding as might occur in a film or television miniseries and that certainly occurs. Yet, I would have very much appreciated that understanding in a Preface or initial chapter.

To their credit, the authors do not pressure readers to adopt their values on these most important cultural issues. Instead, their questions in each chapter ask that readers explore their personal reactions and comprehension, albeit within the understandable perspective on anti-racism and the impact of marginalization. This matches up well with therapists’ need to work from within clients’ values and cultural systems, rather than to impose our personal values.

Why These Films?

One of the huge plusses of this work is in the authors choice of films and miniseries from a variety of cultural contexts, allowing for exploration of themes across cultures. Any choices of which films to include involves a healthy array of challenges. It is easy to criticize any such choices with preferred films of the reader. In that regard, the choices of media presentations in this book offer a wide-ranging perspective, representing some very wise, if potentially difficult, choices by the authors. Although I would personally have switched out some of the options chosen, I have to admit that their selections were quite comprehensive, rich in scope and diverse, offering readers some very important questions and themes.

Therapists who are film buffs may have some familiarity with the majority of movies referenced. However, many will find some of the films out of their current awareness. Of course, one response to that could be an inducement to find and watch those movies after reading. In addition, for psychotherapists, there may be sufficient meaning in the text that obviates the requirement of watching the cited films and miniseries.

One result of their multiple movie choices was that secondary movies in a chapter was a little more condensed than I would have preferred. Of course, this represents an eternal dilemma about quality and quantity. What they did in 211 pages is quite impressive in breadth, even if that meant sacrificing some depth. For example, in the chapter on sexuality, they indicate “culture and sexuality are complicated and multifaceted and each interacts with each other in myriad ways.” (p. 40) There is also a discussion of negative beliefs toward LGBTQ+ individuals. This is certainly accurate today in most cultures, with politics playing a definite role in demeaning and attacks on trans people in particular. It would be valuable to offer a contrasting potential answer to some of this prejudice by exploring briefly how some cultures have successfully been more accepting of sexual diversity and gender-role neutrality. For example, in precolonial days in The Philippines, transgender and queer individuals were honored as “experts in ‘the fields of culture, religion and medicine” (Nadal, 2021; p. 29). Similarly, in ancient, and to some extent current Hawaii there is a tradition of Mahu (transexual and transvestite males) who held sacred roles and were seen as having special skills as healers and caretakers), and were integral to the community (Shapiro, et al., 2025)

In sum, Movies, Miniseries, and Multiculturalism is thoughtful, timely, and useful for clinicians. It offers a more comprehensive awareness of the intersection of movies and culture both for psychotherapists and clients. In addition, it is an easy and enjoyable read. In particular, one can find it easy to drift away from the book content and reflect internally on a particular film, its meaning and cultural impact. In this way, it follows one of the authors’ goals to generate internalization and reflection. It has value for clinicians who wish to use film to learn about client cultures, as a pedagogical or reflective tool and an inducement to deepen how they personally relate to media.