Mental Disorders: The Role Of Schizophrenia In The Media

Furthermore, tremendous advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses in the recent decades. Nowadays, someone with a mental illness is treated with respect, just like every other person, because, in fact, everyone is equal. Society’s goals today are to treat and support the mentally ill individuals enough so they can live in

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

Throughout the many years, there have been many negative public perceptions of Schizophrenia, which is known by majority of the public as an indication of mental illness. This disorder is most of the time perceived by the public as caused by psychological factors. People with this mental illness are considered to be unpredictable and threatening (Angermeyer & Matschinger, 2003, p. 526). Most patients have a behavioural dysfunction. Victims, families and society carry a substantial burden due to this illness (Wood & Freedman, 2003).

As proclaimed by The National Coalition for the Homeless, “Serious mental illnesses disrupt people’s ability to carry out essential aspects of daily life, such as self-care and household management.” Those suffering from mental illnesses are prevented from properly carrying out the intrinsic skills of livelihood. A mental illness may prevent one from possessing the ability to get a job, eat, earning wherewithal, and perform the multitudinous imperative skills entailed for survival. The preventions of mental illness undeniably can cause one to become

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

The organic source of mental illness and “appropriate” ways to treat/care for those suffering with a mental illness has been professionally, legally, and ethically debated for years. Society’s depiction of mental illness and skewed perceptions of this population has deemed those with a mental disorder incurable. These thoughts and beliefs date back to the 17th century and continue to be an undercurrent in today’s society, even after many efforts have been employed to properly inform society. In the book Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness, the major premise of this book is to shed light and bring awareness to the multifaceted complexity of mental health. One major argument in this book is that of jails becoming the new asylums. Created as a infrastructure to house and care for those with an mental illness, its closure left this population displaced in the community without proper care or treatment; creating an inevitable cycle of jail, mental hospital, court, release, and repeat. Throughout this cycle, those with a mental illness often encounter harsh living conditions and become victims of violence; living in confinement, while not receiving adequate care. Additionally, treatment is administered for competency not sustainability, so those with a mental illness often endure enough treatment for them to stand competent in trial. No forms of sustainability are implemented for this population to reside in the community, resulting in relapse; often

Imagine being diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. Imagine having no control over the voices in your head or the hallucinations that seem as if you are having a nightmare when you are actually awake. Imagine feeling scared and hopeless because your mind is out of touch with reality. Imagine being given the prognosis “grave” meaning that, best case scenario, you would live in board and care the rest of your life with a possibility of working menial jobs. How would you cope with that? Would you give up? Or would you try to work through it? Hundreds of people are diagnosed with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia every year. As one can infer, the only way a person suffering from a mental illness can become healthy again is through having psychiatric help which can be nearly impossible to find in some states. More specifically, Iowa has recently been suffering from a shortage……….. Even though Iowa has had a major decline in the number of mental institute beds available, this should be changed so that people battling mental illness are treated until they are healthy enough to live independently within society.

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.

This article discusses schizophrenia and in general, mental illness. Mac Mcclelland who is the author of this article, writes about the struggle of having a mental illness and what it means to try and get the help you need. The author first tells a story of Houston, a young adult who suffered a psychotic break and was not diagnosed with schizophrenia until he had already killed his father. Houston could not control his delusions and due to the law, there was nothing he or his parents could have done to prevent it. Mcclelland then goes into deep detail into just how the system works and how far we still need to go before it is anywhere near sufficient.

A study found that the portrayal of schizophrenic forty-two people in forty-one films were mostly male Caucasians, displaying traits of schizophrenia, and appearing delusional and a danger to themselves or others (Owen P. R., 2012). Owen’s study (2012) also found that of those forty-two characters, a quarter of them committed suicide in the film, and one third of them participated in “homicidal behaviour.”

It is consumed by the masses at exponential rates, so it is only natural for the consumers to accept most of what they see as truth. Many times there are reports of serial killers or rapists pasted all over the media. Often, news channels will assume the perpetrator has some form of mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Consequently, many people associate schizophrenia with a negative stereotype associated with violence because of what they view in the media. In the scientific study, “Portrayals of Schizophrenia by Entertainment Media: A Content Analysis of Contemporary Movies,” the author reviewed 41 different films made between 1990 and 2010 with at least one main character that had schizophrenia. The study found “most characters engaged in dangerous or violent behaviors toward themselves or others, and nearly a third engaged in homicidal behavior” (Owen). Accordingly, the negative portrayals of those with schizophrenia in movies influence the stigma among the general public that schizophrenia is dangerous. Instinctually, people want to keep themselves safe and alive in their day to day lives, so having this negative reaction to schizophrenia will make them feel safer by avoiding those with the illness.

The most common of these stigmas is the higher level of danger. According to professor Dawn I. Velligan, many people believe those affected by Schizophrenia are more dangerous than the general public because of their disorder; however, schizophrenics usually tend to be the victims of violence rather than the “perpetrators” (Tartakovsky, 2014). In addition, when treated or medicated, schizophrenics are no more dangerous than the general population. Along these same lines, many believe schizophrenics experience the same symptoms (Tartakovsky, 2014). There are

Schizophrenia, one of the severest forms of mental illness, affects 1.0% of the world’s population. In the U.S. approximately 3.2 million adults or 1.2% of the population in a given year have Schizophrenia ("MentalHelp.net," 2009). It causes disabilities across numerous realms of normative life, including attaining vocation, finding a mate and attaining quality of life (Guillem, Pampoulova, Rinaldi, & Stip, 2008; Marder & Fenton, 2004; Spaulding et al., 1999). The cost of the illness to society is estimated to be $62.7 billion dollars (Wu et al., 2005). The cost of the severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) to the state of Ohio is so

It is unfortunate that society primarily view people with schizophrenia as violent. I think the stigma of violence associated with schizophrenia among other reasons still occurs as a lasting ideology of institutionalization, because of the nature of how schizophrenia is mentioned in the news, and the fact that it is a difficult disease to treat. First, one of the most common myth of the disease is that people suffering from it are violent. This was a driving force during institutionalization and as a result people with the disease were kept from away from society. Although as a society we have moved to deinstitutionalization that idea is still prevalent and has not changed from its origination. Secondly, when schizophrenia is mentioned in the

“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.