The Portrayal Of Mental Illness - 962 Words

Portrayal of mental illness in media, films and television programmes is extensive and predominantly preserves myths and stereotypes about mental illness. People with mental illness are most commonly shown as being violent and aggressive, but they are also frequently depicted as tragic, tortured, genius, dangerous, eccentric, flamboyant, hysterical, sexual, jokers and rebels. Mental health professionals are variously portrayed as incompetent, sinister, unrealistically seductive or rationalist foils that come up with scientific arguments to explain supernatural phenomena only to be wrong at the end. A skewed picture of mental health treatment is presented with an emphasis on those treatments that serve entertainment purposes, e.g. psychotherapy is generally and unrealistically represented since they give the audience an introduction into the mind of the character undergoing treatment and have melodramatic potential respectively, whereas drug therapies which are more commonly used and usually more effective but do not further the plot are not visually interesting are rare in films. The idea of portraying mental illness is often heavily criticised. Some evidence would suggest that extremely impressive and persuading portrayals can have negative effects (Elder, R. 2005), spreading the disfigured view associated with mental illness and reducing the likelihood that those with mental illness will seek the appropriate help. 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