Scorsese interviewed by L'espresso (web translation)
"More than a mystery novel is a character study and the story of a crucial period in psychiatry," says Scorsese. "The film is set in the '50s because in those years, at least in America, was the schism between two schools of psychiatry diametrically opposed. A pin was on aggressive medicalisation of mental disorder, including electroshock and lobotomy: a New York was even walking a laboratory to perform lobotomy sitting right." "The other school, the progressive represented by the psychiatrist in the film starring Ben Kingsley, was opposed to these barbaric methods and the use of hard drugs, considered the equivalent of a 'suicide of the soul'. The scientific approach of this school has transformed psychiatry from that kind of medieval torture that was formerly a real therapy that humanize the care of 'mad'. So for me this movie aspires to be a human drama with suspense, but a scientific background."The complete 8/4/08 interview can be found here.