The Motion Picture Prescription

The Motion Picture Prescription: watch this movie and call me in the morning® THE FIRST BOOK WRITTEN ON THE SUBJECT OF ‘CINEMATHERAPY’®, USING MOVIES AS THERAPY. From time to time we are left dazed and confused, clueless about how to be triumphant when confronted with the challenging moments of our lives. Enter Dr. Gary Solomon, aka The Movie Doctor®. His book is the first of its kind with a listing of healing stories from the movies. We can see how the right story can show us how others coped, and help us heal. Here is an easy-to-use, comprehensive healing guide to help you, your family, and your friends, resolve problems-everything from addictions, abuse, stalking, money, abandonment, alienation, bigotry, marital conflict, adoption, sex, physical illness, and much, much more. Open the pages and get a glimpse of the healing magic that movies can bring. When I was a child there were some movies that touched me in a way that was different than all the westerns and war movies that were the popular cinematic features of the day. I liked movies that could make me feel things. Now, I didn't exactly know what my feelings were back then, but whatever was happening when I watched movies, I liked it. I found I was interested in biographies or real-life stories, which seemed more real to me. I liked hearing about people's lives, learning about their personal experiences, and sharing their emotions. The Great Houdini, The Thomas Edison Story, and The Benny Goodman Story all meant more to me than any action movie that everyone else was watching. I preferred movies that had a message, and when one of those movies came on the television, I got lost-lost in a world that protected me from the fear, pain, and abuse that were my constant reminders that life was not a happy place to be. At school I struggled my way through, hated my way through. I didn't learn to read or write until I was twelve. In those days schools just passed kids like me along to the next grade; I simply became the next teacher's problem. It wasn't a very happy time, but I had my movies and eventually my music, so nothing else mattered. Even though I quit high school to go on the road with a rock band, by some miracle I learned to read and write, and eventually I graduated high school with my class. And somehow, some way, after two junior colleges and a state college, I made my way to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where I entered into the Department of Psychol­ogy. I wrote my papers, took my tests (went to the ever-popular war protests to meet girls), and struggled to pass my classes. Come hell or high water, I was going to get that piece of paper that everyone said would never be mine. No matter what was going on in my life, my interest in movies was never far behind. It was the late sixties, times were changing, and so were the movies. I got entrenched in Easy Rider, especially the message it sent about drugs and the evil that drugs bring to anyone who sells or uses them. I got buried in Clockwork Orange, particularly the society in chaos portrayed in that movie. How could we evolve into such a negative, violent world? Surely Vietnam and the Beatles hadn't brought us to that point. My experience with movies kept calling me to watch more and more stories with special messages. I would go out on a date and take whomever I was seeing at the time to a movie. Afterwards we would sit and talk for hours about the movie's message. I learned that movies broke the ice on a date and also released the real me that was hiding inside. What was even better was that my dates and my new friends felt the same way.