Crazy, Not Insane

The forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis spent her career studying serial killers. Her thesis is contested: most of them carry severe childhood abuse and a resulting split personality; evil is produced rather than innate. Alex Gibney directed. Laura Dern narrates. The material is Lewis's own record: video and audio of her sessions with prisoners, her notes and her court testimony. Her interview with Ted Bundy before his execution is among them. At the centre is a legal question: does mental illness remove culpability, and can courts measure it. Lewis testifies against the death penalty and prosecutors work continually to discredit her. The documentary does not declare her right; it also shows why her thesis is so hard to prove. The diagnosis of split personality is itself still contested, and the film does not hide that. Who it is for: viewers who like forensic psychiatry and true crime. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear answer; the film leaves the question open.