Séraphine

No particular diagnosis stands out here, other than possibly Schizoid Personality Disorder. As the story opens we see painter Séraphine Louis already in middle age with no emotional connection to anyone. We soon learn that her religion may drive her obsession with painting. She alludes to having been instructed to do so, apparently by an angel or the Virgin Mary. But only later in the film does she appear frankly delusional. Many devoutly religious people experience a calling, even sometimes reporting a hallucinated voice or vision. Such experiences usually do not imply mental illness.

Séraphine works hard, displays extraordinary independence, talent and cleverness not only in concocting her own pigments but also in dealing with people. There is not contriction of affect.

But as time goes on, and even in the face of success and an apparent friendship with a young woman, we see more evidence of a single delusion motivating her: "They'll come for me, and I'll be saved." (1:41) She dons a wedding gown she had made weeks or months (?) before and walks through Senlis dropping her most valuable possessions in front of homes and knocking on their doors until police take her to a psychiatric hospital. I wondered whether she might have believed she was destined to marry Jesus.

We see Séraphine enter the psychiatric hospital (1:46) and the day room (1:47). Frightened by another patient who awakens her by pulling at her hair nurses restrain her in an isolation room (1:50). She enters Clermont Asylum (1:51), then transfers to a private room with a door that opens to a meadow (1:52).