I’ve been having a bit of a Green Day phase as of late and had the good luck of stumbling on the “Basket Case” music video, which is set in a psychiatric hospital. The video was really interesting to me because it itself seemed conflicted about the stance it was taking on the psychiatric hospital. At times, it utilizes some horror imagery — distorted colors and images, people wearing strange masks, the like — and it ends with the band being locked in seemingly against their will, or at least as an act that they’re not happy about. However, at other points in the video, it seems to view parts of the hospital more positively; for example, it is the attendants who bring the band their instruments and help them to start playing the song to begin with. The video portrays a really interesting mix of views on mental health practices that reminded me a lot of the conflicted feelings about various methods being helpful in some ways and harmful in others that we’ve seen going all the way back to Kirkbride.
