mollie langston
How does Hollywood construct Representations
of mental illness?
"Mental Illness is frequently depicted in mass media, particularly the entertainment, media and film, these depictions tend to be inaccurate and unfavourable” Otto F. Wahl). My investigation will be looking at the two texts 'Psycho' (1960) and 'Black Swan' (2010). I will analyse these two texts to justify Otto F. Wahl's statement and investigate how Hollywood has constructed the representation of mental illness throughout film.
I will investigate the validity of the statement Otto made by analysing how mental illness is represented in different genres in Hollywood for example, “1horror genre is full of antagonists who are presented or described as mentally ill”[18]. I will then also analyse how hollywood has negatively represented mental illness in films and stigmatised the behaviours of mental illness, a quote from psychiatric times it is said that “Negative stereotypes of patients with mental illness have a long history in Hollywood” [19]. Lastly, i will investigate how mis-representations of mental illness in hollywood affect the way people see and feel about mental illness, psychiatric times also said “Inaccurate portrayals have an important and underestimated negative effect on the perception of people with mental disorders’ [19].
In addition to my research i will also apply the 'The Hypodermic Model' which was made in the early 1930's. I will specifically base this on the shower scene in 'Psycho' and the weight concern scene of 'Black Swan'. I will do this to evaluate the idea that certain stigma and behaviours are injected into the audience to create an inaccurate view of mental illness in Hollywood. Otto F. Wahl also states that "media images of mental illness support the belief that media presentation about mental illness…can have significant affects on attitudes towards mental illness and treatment."
Mental illness has been depicted in film for decades, over the years the way mental health is represented has changed but also still carries many of the stigma it has always had. Many horror and thrillers in the mid 1900's represented mental health in a negative light, which overall injected the audience with a negative view on mental health and deemed people who struggle with it as dangerous. [3]. Mental illness in horror frequently represents people with mental health as violent and dangerous [2] especially in slasher horrors such as ‘Psycho’ and ‘Halloween’. Many horror films in the 60's and 70's used metal illness such as psychosis and schizophrenia as a storyline for killers behaviour and actions, such as the 1960s ‘Psycho’ which depicts multiple mental illnesses in a negative and violent light, this then implants the stereotype that mental illness is dangerous and unpredictable into the audiences minds, especially in the mid 1900's as mental illness was still very uncharted and taboo to people back thins it was not very well researched or educated to people. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) uses psychosis and schizophrenia as an identity for Norman Bates, who is a homicidal manic, one scene in the film is legendary in film,the shower scene, in which the antagonist murders a girl in a shower in a violent and bloody way. This mislead people to think of mental health negatively as he slaughters a young woman. However, many people who suffer with mental health issues are no more likely to hurt you than the average person is [3]. The stigma and representation has not got better over the decades, many illnesses are made to make people seem dangerous or uncontrollable [5]. Statistically, 0.005% of people with mental illness are likely to harm or kill someone [16].Horror isn't the only genre that stigmatises mental health, mental health is represented in a poor light in many genres, for example, comedies use mental illness as a joke and something to make light off, romance romanticises mental illness as a weak person who once they find someone everything is better such as the silver linings playbook, crime uses the mentally ill as criminals, for example Silents Of The Lambs shows people with mental illness as very sick and twisted and drama represents mental illness as a dark story that needs to have a big back story such as Donnie Darko, because it is stigmatised that you only have mental illness if something terrible has happened to you.
Entertainment,media and films depict mental illness in multiple negative manners, even with better understanding of the illness, its effects and the causes of the illness[6]. Black swan (2010) uses multiple mental illnesses in there protagonist, in the film she suffers from, Eating Disorders, Bipolar, psychosis and Schizophrenia. One scene in the film, the protagonist hallucinates the murder of her dance rival. Black swan was praised for its correct use of symptoms for psychosis but poorly represented schizophrenia [6]. In the film, the protagonist is shown taking drugs and drinking such as the scene where the protagonist and her friends take ecstasy in a rave that she attends after she starts to show symptoms of multiple illnesses, which adds a whole new stigma to the representation of the character as many people assume that the mentally ill use drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism, many people also link drugs to crime and criminals, which does not help the stigma of violence and danger that is already place on mental illness. The black Swan depicts mental illness in a dark and pessimistic light, many of the scenes are violent and unrealistic, such as scenes of manipulation such as the scene in which her mother discovers the harm she has inflicted on herself, she lies repeatedly about how she got them and what actually happened and drug use such as pills and alcohol , which overall affect the way people see the mental illness [13]. Black Swan also includes Eating Disorders, which is stereotypical of a dancer, as it is known to be a big problem in the dance world. Some people disagree with the way the film represents this as it is seen as gloomy and represents ballet as a dark and vicious sport [15].
The negative representation, stigma and stereotyping of mental illness in Hollywood affect perceptions towards mental illness. The constant negative and uneducated portrayal of mental illness cans seriously influence peoples views towards mental illness in a negative way [13]. Stephen Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at the University of California–Berkeley said "The worst stereotypes come out in such depictions: mentally ill individuals as incompetent, dangerous, slovenly, undeserving, The portrayals serve to distance 'them' from the rest of 'us."[9] The isolation that we create to mental illness, damagers the sufferer even more than they already are, it makes them feel different from everyone else. The way people and the media go around mental illness is all wrong, instead of educating and supporting those suffering, they depict them as violent and dangerous, implanting fear into peoples mine and adding stigma to something that is nothing to be ashamed of. Because mental illness is so stigmatised and many people are uneducated on mental illness and the effects, causes and symptoms of illnesses, people feel uncomfortable around anything that isn't the norm, such as if someone was talking to themselves, they would be seen as weird and possibly dangerous, because that's how we have been wired to thing, even though Most people who have schizophrenia are not high-risk or dangerous [3]. Films that stereotype mental illness as feverishly violent and then should be stigmatised and feared [2]. The Black Swan glamorises mental illness such as Eating Disorders for example when the protagonist partakes in bulimic behaviours, it lives up to the commonly represented skinny pretty girl tragically leaning over a toilet, it does not depict the real true affects of bulimia, the scene also gives the impression that you have to be skinny and anorexic to be involved in ballet which is a common stereotype of the art, this could easily influence young girls who want to be involved in ballet to follow that path as they think its the only way they can get involved.
Psycho also influences the way people see mental illness as the main character and killer in the film is seen as a deranged and violent serial killer [10]. Even though the film never mentions the mental illness itself, it shows the over dramatised symptoms of the illness, which then when the audience sees them really happening, instantly connects the dots to violence and murder, Norman is also shown to have family issues with his mother, which is shown in the scene when he dresses as hid dead mother [8], this then pushes the audience to think that people with mental illness are weird and makes them feel uncomfortable to be around.
through my research i have come to the conclusion that, although mental illness is better understood, many forms of media still manipulate the stigma that has been forced onto the subject to use there advantage to represent characters as dangerous, unstable and violent. This depiction of mental illness influences the way people view mental illness and corrupts the way mental illness is understood, throughout the years, the media has injected its audience with false representations of mental illness and therefore, represents the mentally ill in a negative and false way.
mollie
langston
Bibliography
1. http://brainblogger.com/2006/04/28/anti-stigmatization-movies-stigmatize-mentally-ill-as-violent-and-dangerous/
2. http://jacksonville.com/interact/blog/uf_psychology_students/2009-12-18/the_stigmatization_of_mental_illness_in_movies_and_t
3. http://national.deseretnews.com/article/1316/how-tv-is-changing-perceptions-of-mental-disorders.html
4. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/peopleevents/e_film.html
6. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Movies/black-swan-psychiatrists-diagnose-natalie-portmans-portrayal-psychosis/story?id=12436873
7. http://www.priory.com/psych/psycinema.htm
:necessary parts
8. http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/12/mental-illness-stigma/
10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2802369/
12. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10683817.pdf
13. http://mindsmattermagazine.com/media-entertainment-and-the-representation-of-mental-health/
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14. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&context=cc_etds_theseshttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/fashion/09swan.html?_r=0
16. https://books.google.co.uk/books
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18. http:/www.academia.ed9388210Evil_or_Misunderstood_Depictions_of_Mental_Illness_in_Horror_Films
19. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/stigma-continues-hollywood
