False Portrayal of Mental Illness in the Media

Mental health has been a topic of discussion and has held a stigma around it for numerous years. Society at times has viewed it in a closed minded view due to generational aspects and lack of understanding. With the lack of education on mental health, the society, cultures, and communities often times more than not stereotype and discriminate against those with mental health disabilities. The population, of which I have discussed previously, is a population with one of the most negative attitudes against them. Media and society views these individuals as psychopaths, sociopaths, and being insane with some people even go as far as indicating these individuals should not be living. With Antisocial Personality Disorder, media has portrayed these

After her high school graduation, Trina began experiencing manic episodes. These episodes consisted of Trina lashing out in various ways. Some moments within the book described Trina as verbally and physically abusive towards her mother, destructive by smashing glass cups, extreme paranoia, and wild nights out involving joints or alcohol. In June, Trina was

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact it

Mental illness is often wrongly portrayed in the United States’ media creating stigmatization and misrepresentation. Mental illness “refers to a wide range of mental disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). Examples of disorders include anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Any “negative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are called stigma” (Wilson et al., 2016, p. 2) and stigma can contribute to progression of mental illness because of its harmful effects due to misrepresentation in the media. In the recent years, the United States media has began to address the reprehension around the topic of mental illness, as it has began to develop into a rising problem in citizens across the nation. In the past, any portrayal of a figure or character with a mental disorder would be wrongly depicted, therefore, creating a distorted perception for the viewers (Stout et al., 2004, p. 1). Television shows have started to establish characters with mental illness in hopes to lessen the stigma behind ill characters due to the wrongful associations viewers may make. The way media viewers’ stereotype the mentally ill into categories can be harmful to the well being of those with disorders. Stereotypes can be so harmful that even medical professionals “contend that stigma is a major reason why one-fourth of the estimated 50 million Americans experiencing mental illness yearly will not seek

“Oh, my God,...You thought I loved Rebecca?...You thought I killed her, loving her? I hated her, I tell you, our marriage was a farce from the very first. She was vicious, damnable, rotten through and through. We never loved eachother, never had one moment of happiness together. Rebecca was incapable of love, of tenderness, of decency. She was not even normal.”(275).

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact

As evidenced by the poignancy of the Bechdel Test and the DuVernay Test, white men and their stories dominate film. The problem, of course, that arises from such a whitewashed male perspective is that the valid and worthwhile stories of other groups of people are pushed aside, often as a means of plot progression for white male protagonists. Add mental illness to the mix. On top of the silenced forced upon marginalized groups simply for not being the most privileged, the people in these groups, when afflicted by mental illness, fall victim to harsh stereotypes that further eliminate the uniqueness of their stories. Of these groups, women are of particular interest because they are not left out of cinema completely, just enough to be exemplars of a group whose voice muted by stereotypes such as that of the crazy girlfriend, the fragile wallflower, and, most importantly for the purposes of this paper, the beautiful tragedy. It is a common plotline in the mental ill woman-concerned media to start with a female character noted for her beauty, and often her innocence but not always, who nose dives into mental illness. Most importantly and, more often than not, most differently from mentally ill characters that are white and male, the craze becomes so overwhelming that the female character has to be forcibly silenced in the end, either by death or by being locked away. The same is true for other characters of alternate minority groups, such as Anthony in Dead Presidents, but

She moved into a house with roommates and there she felt comfortable being herself but still struggled with loving herself. She saw first hand what her disease could turn her into, a savage ripping apart her own skin with no way of controlling it or knowing when it would happen. Butler describes Lynn’s view of the outer world as, ““Two men and three women. All we had in common was our disease, plus a weird combination of stubborn intensity about whatever we happened to be doing and hopeless cynicism about everything else. Healthy people say no one can concentrate like a

For starters, schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that can be devastating to the person and their family. Some symptoms of the illness includes: hearing voices, hallucinations, delusions of others in their head, and erratic behavior. These symptoms can be a big problem for the person, but sadly many people misjudge the illness or the people with it, leading the one with it to be abused by people, drugs, alcohol, and even themselves. Although, it seems to be human behavior to judge those who are different. Racial discrimination, those with illnesses, what people look like, these are just a few of the examples of how humans judge one another. After conducting research it is clear that some serious

I think that different shows and movies can depict mental illness in a positive or negative way. I thought as time went on though they were getting better at showing that having a mental illness can seriously impact one’s life, that they are real, and the people aren’t crazy. I haven’t seen the movie The Visit before, but I’m glad you mentioned it because like I said I had no idea that there was still such recent movies portraying mental illnesses in such a negative light. Those with schizophrenia aren’t crazy at all, their brain just interprets things differently. Which can be hard for people to understand since they aren’t experiencing it for themselves.

The media is and has been one of the strongest outlets of perpetuating negative mental illness stereotypes. Since the invention of the television and its spread to every American household by the 1960s, television shows have manufactured an image of the mentally disabled as dangerous and unpredictable . The shows depict the mentally ill as very violent; “One in four mentally ill characters kill someone, and half are portrayed as hurting others .” The ways in which mentally disabled are filmed within a show also differs from the ways that non-disabled characters are shot. Studies show that they are usually filmed “alone with close-up or extreme shots, reinforcing their isolation and dislocation from the other characters ” and from society. In movies, like One Flew Over the

Many incidents throughout the movie show evidence that Rebecca suffers from some type of mental disorder. She becomes insanely jealous over anyone that Sara develops a potential relationship with and will do whatever it takes to stop it from happening, including murder. In the beginning, Rebecca’s antisocial and weird behavior concerns Sara, but she tries not to think too much about it. Over Thanksgiving holidays, Sara stays at Rebecca’s home with her family. One day Rebecca’s mother mentions how Rebecca is supposed to be taking her medication. Concerned, Sara secretly searches through Rebecca’s desk drawer whenever they return back from the holidays. She finds a bottle of Zyprexa which is used to treat schizophrenia. But, the bottle is

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” -Malcolm X. It can be said without a doubt that media plays a massive role in how society views certain things. A negative media portrayal ultimately leads to negativity and stigma towards whichever group. One of the groups that is severely impacted by these dismissive representations is mental illness. The portrayal of mental illness in mass media as violent, amusing, or downright “nuts”, is inaccurate and vilifying, but can be resolved by the inclusion of mental health specialist in program planning.

Sara does not report any problems functioning with her occupation as evidenced by her ability to perform her nursing duties. Conversely, Sara has reported her excessive anxiety level is preventing her from effectively functioning in accomplishing her school work due to her fragile mental state. Sara reports that she is not smart enough and thoughts of self-doubt. Sara functionality within her social life is not normal and hinders her ability to socialize with other people. This is evident as her referring to herself as a loner, apprehension around other people, overpowering feelings around men, and uses alcohol and drugs when she is distraught. Furthermore, Sara reports, perform her fantasizes about committing suicide when her feelings

Even though cuts were all over her arms she still always had the biggest grin on her face. Her eyes beamed with a mixture of blue and green as she said hi to everyone who passed her down the dark narrow hallway. She knew what to do, and where to go. She knew the drill. The drill of a mental hospital. Her name is Megan and she was my roommate at the hospital. She made things happy when things were sad. She would stay awake with me when I couldn’t sleep and talk about why I was in there; why I was staying there for seven days.