Donnie Darko and Mental Illness

I think Donnie Darko is a rare sci-fi\horror film in that it does not trivialize mental illness or the suffering mentally ill people go through, but tries to understand what the experience of mental illness might be like for those suffering from it. It is never quite clear whether Donnie is himself mentally ill or the saviour figure he perceives himself to be. What is clear from the film is that the societal standards governing mental illness in the eighties (the time period in which the movie is set) are designed to create a joyocentric, self-absorbed society that does not truly care about how the mentally ill perceive things. Donnie Darko, as a film, contrasts the possibly schizophrenic Donnie, with his razor sharp analysis of hypocrisy, with the shallow eighties motivational speakers that dominate his school. In doing so, Donnie Darko remains the definitive cinematic statement against the Norman Vincent Peale school of "Positive Thinking", which currently dominates cognitive behavioral psychology. For that the producers of Donnie Darko have my gratitude.