Media Portrayal Of The Mental Illnesses Schizophrenia

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

According to Mathers et al., (1996) “Schizophrenia ranks among the top ten causes of disability worldwide and affects one in one hundred people at some point in their lives.” (Cardwell and Flanagan, 2012). Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which is commonly diagnosed in 15-30 year old individuals. It disrupts a person’s cognition, perceptions and emotions, making it extremely difficult to diagnose. Bleuler (1911) introduced the term schizophrenia, which translates as ‘split-mind’ or ‘divided self’ and accounts for the earlier interpretations of the disease. These misunderstandings and the ongoing misrepresentations, especially within the media, has stigmatised the illness. This raises the need for better understanding and

Misunderstood with the assistance of popular stigmas and stereotypes, schizophrenia and its severity is often degraded and overlooked by the public. Wrongly feared and shunned, individuals with schizophrenia have too commonly been judged throughout human history and even today. Many aspects of the disease are failed to be truly understood and represented, from the effects of the disease to the availability of treatment. Favored by the media, incorrect and misleading portrayals of schizophrenics frequently appear in popular culture and entertainment, influencing people’s perceptions of the mental illness. Not at all rare and incredibly destructive,

While most mental disorders have a stigma attached to them, few stigmas are as ugly as the one fused to Schizophrenics. It is in the nature of the disorder to twist its victims thoughts, distorting their logic and causing them to percieve things that are not real. This is terrifying and unfathomable for those foreign to the concept. During an attack, a Paranoid Schizophrenic may become convinced of a percieved threat which they then take measures to avoid. Such was the case with young Morgan Frank, the main character of the Cosmopolitan article How I Dealt With My Daughter's Terrifying Battle With Schizophrenia. In the article, Morgan's mother describes her daughters violent tendencies and delusions, which began in infancy. She describes the various drugs that her

It is easy for an audience to be manipulated by the media. The portrayal of an issue like mental illness is totally vulnerable to misrepresentation. Depending on who is writing and their viewpoint, it does not take much to make this issue sympathetic or demonized. If the author of a given piece wants his or her audience to demonize something, the author might use the word "isolation”. If that same author wants a sympathetic response he might use the word "loneliness”. As far as the New York Times is concerned, they opted for a stereotypical portrayal. It is true that Lanza is indeed a mass murdered, but must the story fit the profile now that the deed is done? Apparently, for the New York Times, it must.Accoring to Margaret Price, she is making the same point of how the media represent disabilities. She says the accounts that the media "inflect public myths about mental disability, race, class, nationality and gender ..."

In 1968 the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) updated the definition of schizophrenia to include hostility, aggressiveness, and lack of acceptance of oneself. The next social, or cultural influence is that of stigma against mental illness in our daily lives. These attitudes play on decisions made in our lives that affect the larger world. In a recent poll released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) finds misconceptions to be prominent by American society. “Slightly more than 70 percent of those surveyed would be afraid for their own safety around a person who has not received treatment for schizophrenia, and 21 percent would be afraid for their own safety around a person who had been treated for the disorder, according to the results” (American Psychiatric Association, 2011).

In many movies the producers have an individual playing a violent character who’s supposed to have schizophrenia. These people are stereotyped as being unpredictable and dangerous. Suicide is very high among people with schizophrenia but the risk of violence is very small according to U. S. National Institute of Mental Health. The entertainment world have society believing that people with schizophrenia harm themselves. More research is needed to show how movies give the public the wrong perception of the illness.

Mental illness is heavily stigmatized in mainstream media sources, such as articles, books and movies. The character who is suffering from a mental disorder, which is stigmatized is often exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. The stigmatization of mental disorders is unfair to those who have mental disorders. The viewers of media are viewing those suffering from the disorders as “psychotic” or “crazy”, which is inaccurate and unjust to those affected. The media representation of the disorder provides vague and inaccurate causes and treatments. In the movie series “The Dark Knight Rises” and television series “Dexter”, the characters Joker and Dexter are afflicted with the mental disorder antisocial personality disorder; in which it creates

With basic information on what this mental illness is, to understand Schizophrenia further, research into personal encounters became apparent. After looking into the mind of Ian Chovil who was a victim of the mental health disease and finding his accounts very eccentric it is clear that this is something that could quite possibly affect the brains of the people that commit serious crimes in regards to the Media. Ian says in his story a few things which connect this type of mental health to violent obscure behaviour. He says he had delusions right from the start which after reading his story states, progressed from visions of famous persons trying to force him to commit suicide right to the later stages of his schizophrenia where he says he got a lot of messages from favourite Rock and Rolla songs, movies, cartoons and library books. Ian doesn’t say these forms of media forced him to murder innocent people but it does provide evidence that he received messages. These messages in the mind of another schizophrenic could lead to serious acts of violence which leads onto the next part of his story where he mentions how his delusions changed as aliens instructed him on the real nature of reality then three things happened as contact with reality became very tenuous, he got into trouble with the law, became an alcoholic and lost his job. He is now taking instructions from a part of his mind he perceives

Since the dawn of humanity, schizophrenia has been a fascinating mystery of the public, but the reactions are not so positive. From the ancient times when they performed macabre procedures such as harrowing exorcisms or drilling holes in the skulls to release demons, to unregulated and abusive asylums, to false representation in the media, schizophrenia is a widely misunderstood disease. Fortunately, our modern society's most common offense is negative stereotypes and, wile not an unorthodox penetration of the skull, it is definitely harmful. Instead, we now have Hollywood metaphorically drilling it into our skulls that schizophrenics are generally violent and terrifying, but that is not the case.

“A good story catches public attention either by focusing on conflict and controversy or by raising issues of public safety—all perspectives that may place journalists in direct conflict with mental health advocates. News media, particularly newspapers, are among the most frequently identified sources of mental health information. This gives them great scope to dispel inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes perpetuated in the entertainment media or to reinforce and amplify them. Results show that news representations of mental illness […] are largely inaccurate and negative. Reporters emphasize the violent, delusional and irrational behavior of people with a mental illness, and often sensationalise headlines or story content in order to attract attention .”

“In media reporting and in public opinion Schizophrenia probably has more negative associations that any other public health issue in the UK today,” (Stigma). The negative ideas that the public has on Schizophrenic patients unfavorably affects them. According to Dr. Buchanan Fahy, there have been many people that suffer from Schizophrenia that said that the stigma that they face is just as bad as the hallucination, delusions and other symptoms that come with their mental illness. The negative stigma can lead to denial that they have the mental illness. It can also lead to poor self-esteem, the need to isolate oneself, self pain, and even the feeling of desperation. This disorder has effects that can ruin a person

“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.

Movies and other forms of popular entertainment sources have often presented varied information and as well as misinformation about schizophrenia, most specifically in regard to its negative portrayals, which can lead to confused public opinion. In summary, majority of movies and popular entrainment media sources portrays people with schizophrenia as violent and with homicidal and suicide thoughts. In addition, most characters in these media sources are portrayed as Caucasians, males, and with supernatural abilities (Gaebel, 2011).

The news story has received moderate attention on Facebook and Twitter having been posted by at least 10 different news and health related sources on both platforms, and getting many shares and comments. Based on the comments, the general response to the story is anger and disappointment that those with schizophrenia experience such a higher mortality rate and that there is still so little done to address this inequality. Many people also expressed frustration that the subject of the article is being presented as “new” and “novel” findings when they feel it has been an obvious issue for many years.