{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,31]],"date-time":"2026-07-31T08:59:13Z","timestamp":1785488353808,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":9,"publisher":"Royal College of Psychiatrists","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]],"date-time":"2025-12-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765756800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Br J Psychiatry"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"abstract":"\n The 2023\n Barbie<\/jats:italic>\n movie became an unexpected touchstone in my clinical practice. In the months after the film\u2019s general release, children, young people and adults quoted from the film\u2019s comedic moments and inspirational monologues, using them as a shorthand for complex emotional experiences, and to identify struggles and experiences of care and recovery. The film\u2019s playful tone and layered themes allowed for moments of humour alongside serious introspection. This paper describes an exploration of the\n Barbie<\/jats:italic>\n movie as a shared cultural language that facilitated therapeutic conversations and provided a narrative framework for self-exploration. Drawing upon concepts from narrative medicine, psychoanalytic theory and the enduring cultural symbolism of Barbie, this discussion positions the\n Barbie<\/jats:italic>\n film as a displacement object, a transitional space, a narrative tool and a fitting metaphor for adolescent development as well as recovery. I consider the impact of the film\u2019s rich cineliteracy on clinical practice, against a background of historical psychiatric discourses around the Barbie doll, and her enduring cultural symbolism. Fictionalised clinical encounters illustrate how young people engaged with\n Barbie<\/jats:italic>\n to explore issues of gender, trauma and institutional structures. This paper argues that an openness to integrating popular media into psychiatric practice expands the scope of assessment and therapeutic engagement, allowing children, young people and adults to express their experiences through culturally familiar, accessible narratives.\n <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1192\/bjp.2025.10507","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]],"date-time":"2025-12-15T11:30:42Z","timestamp":1765798242000},"page":"232-235","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Life in plastic, it\u2019s therapeutic: the Barbie movie and adolescent mental health"],"prefix":"10.1192","volume":"229","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5981-5616","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabina","family":"Dosani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/026k5mg93","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of East Anglia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"170","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref6","volume-title":"Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors","author":"Sontag","year":"2013"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226260037.001.0001"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0012-1649.42.2.283"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1521\/jaap.1.1998.26.1.165"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s40211-017-0241-2"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref1","volume-title":"Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness","author":"Charon","year":"2008"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref8","volume-title":"Playing and Reality","author":"Winnicott","year":"1971"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1192\/apt.bp.107.005306"},{"key":"S0007125025105072_ref7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.1192\/apt.9.2.135","article-title":"Psychiatry and the media","volume":"9","author":"Oyebode","year":"2003","journal-title":"Adv Psychiatr Treat"}],"container-title":["The British Journal of Psychiatry"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0007125025105072","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,31]],"date-time":"2026-07-31T08:21:20Z","timestamp":1785486080000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0007125025105072\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]]},"references-count":9,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]}},"alternative-id":["S0007125025105072"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1192\/bjp.2025.10507","relation":{},"ISSN":["0007-1250","1472-1465"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0007-1250","type":"print"},{"value":"1472-1465","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}