It seems recently that the entertainment industry has provided America with authentic portrayals of characters that are suffering with psychological disorders. At first glance these characters seem to depict the disorders they are given in a somewhat realistic light. At closer examination though, the truth of the seriousness of these disorders seems minimalized and at times even glorified. Two characters that come to mind are Adrian Monk, of the USA network show Monk, and Dr. Gregory House of the Fox TV show House.
Adrian Monk was brought to life by actor Tony Shaloub, and was a funny and enjoyable detective show, which has now ended after eight successful seasons. Adrian Monk is a very likeable “Colomboesque” detective who was suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The storyline shows Monk as a former police detective who suffered from OCD throughout his life, but upon the murder of his wife, Trudy, found himself unable to properly function in society, especially in regard to his employment with the police department. The show depicts Monk working through his OCD with the help of a full-time nurse/assistant and also with the help of a therapist. Having so much help in dealing with his disorder is not very realistic to begin with! I don’t know many people that can afford to hire a full time nurse assistant and have years of visits to a therapist, without the worry of insurance being cancelled (they did address the insurance topic at one point in the show, during the eighth and final season). Monk exhibits many of the commonly known OCD behaviors such as his hand washing rituals, doing daily activities in a strict pre-established sequence, having items in his home organized in one specific way and never deviatin...
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...s and the response of the people around them seems to be trivialized and sometimes even glorified. In the case of Adrian Monk, his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder was often depicted as a funny little idiosyncrasy, annoying at worst, and only rarely shown as something that was bringing misery to the character’s life. In the case of Dr. Gregory House, his Antisocial Personality Disorder is depicted as a side-effect of his brilliant mind or an annoying, if rude, personality quirk, and sometimes even dismissed as an effect of his addiction instead of the psychological disorder that it truly seems to be. It seems as though the entertainment industry is more willing to take risks with flawed characters headlining shows, however, as is often the case on TV and in the movies, it still doesn’t truly depict the world as it truly is for people suffering from these disorders.
With all respect to the esteemed author and his colleague, this is a load of crap. Mental illnesses develop in relation to a variety of factors, including biochemical, environmental, and psychological. Placing all the blame on a method of entertainment makes no sense, akin to the fallacy that rock music causes cardiovascular difficulties. In addition, these statements center responsibility for such conditions on the individuals themselves, criticizing their intellectual capacities and communication abilities as well as media preferences. Such victim-blaming tactics clothed in the garb of spiritual criticism only serve to alienate the author to his either offended or wounded audience, while spreading a dangerous philosophy regarding mental
During the mid-1900`s, mental illnesses were rarely discussed in mainstream media due to negative stigma surrounding mental illnesses. As a result, characters in film rarely had mental disorders because of the directors` worries of audiences` reactions to how the illnesses were portrayed. Director, Edward Dmytryk, however, attempted to diminish the stigma through his film Raintree County (1957) with Susanna Drake Shawnessy`s mental instability. Elizabeth Taylor`s portrayal of Susanna, however, heightened the stigma surrounding mental illness as Susanna constantly acted immature and childlike.
“Stef Foster and Lena Adams, a lesbian couple, have a family of adopted, biological, and foster children. Mariana and Jesus are adopted 15 year old twins and Brandon is Stef's 16 year old biological son from a previous marriage. Everything is going normal in the house. Until Callie and Jude arrive. 16 year old Callie Jacob and her 12 year old brother, Jude, have been to many different foster homes. But when they get placed with the Fosters, things begin to happen. In this series, the Fosters will deal with many different issues including, hook ups, break ups, romances, and important life lessons.” - Imob
Leo, R. A. (2009, September). Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
The two texts emphasized in this essay include Elyn R. Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold : My Journey Through Madness and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. “There were many days when I believed I was nothing more than the Lady of Charts - a crazy woman who’d faked her way into a teaching job and would soon be discovered for what she really was and put where she really belonged - in a mental hospital” (Saks 263). Saks entire life was a struggle because of the mental illness she had since a young age, schizophrenia. Most of her younger years were lived being misunderstood by her parents and peers alike. She turned to options like substance abuse and self harm to cope with her deteriorating situation in life. There came a point where she realized that she was better than her illness and was able to overcome it with the help and guidance of a few mentors. Now, Saks is a very successful assistant dean, as well as a professor of law, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School. Saks also went on to receive the award for MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and write her book. Joseph Campbell was also very successful in the same way because he wrote a book that is very complex and still relevant in this day and age. Campbell made the mold and Saks’ life fits it
People are constantly bombarded with negative images of people with mental illness. In movies especially this is seen. Most horror movies are centered around a character with mental illness who goes unnoticed and performs horrible crimes because of their illness. People who are portrayed as being depressed, anxious, or compulsive in media are usually seen in a negative way, whereas the characters who are carefree and have no emotional problems are seen in a more positive way. Media is significantly adding to the stigma of mental health.
The portrayal of people being sickly creatures has been used in Hollywood film for a very long time. This has been in the endeavor of putting the viewing public in the shoes of the patient and entertain them with over the top portrayals of disease. For patients that are women in particular this has been achieved by defining them along the lines of vague terms such as them being over emotional and unstable. Despite the advancement experienced by the society, women have not yet fully seen the goal of equality realize fruition. With the expansion of the psychiatric and psychological terminologies, there now additional ways via which mental illness can be ascribed as a weakness for men and women portrayed in Hollywood film. This is best exemplified by the key character in the film Girl Interrupted. In this film, the key character, a woman, is given these labels sourced from psychiatric terminologies. As such, throughout life, she has the difficult task of endeavoring to shed off these forced identities and try to find her own identity. These life struggles are brought on when she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. With this diagnosis, she earns a year-long stay in a prescribed mental institution. Her dream is to become a writer. With her new found diagnosis, however, the probability of her realizing her dream dims. In reality this would only magnified in a 1960 society, where someone suffering from such an ailment would as a woman have even fewer chances of success.
The nature of the disorder makes it difficult to treat, since patients are convinced that they suffer from a real and serious medical problem. Indeed, the mere su...
Personality disorders and mental illnesses are viewed by the general public as similar attributes that are equally harmful. However, when one delves into the diagnostics and patterns of the individual disorders and illnesses, it can be seen that there are major differences between each one. There are many levels of severity of the effects each disorder or illness has on society as a whole. They range from affecting only the individual on a solely personal basis to affecting a large amount of people on a highly violent level. Generally, it is found that mental illnesses have an influence on an individual level while personality disorders have an influence on a widespread level. As in every medical topic, there are outliers, or cases that are far outside the expected outcome, but for the most part, illnesses have less far reaching effects than disorders. On the spectrum of the societal effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses, the obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is actually a mental illness, is on the lowest level in terms of widespread consequences; just above this illness is schizophrenia which has the ability to affect more than the individual unless treated; the narcissistic disorder has farther reaching effects in society, such as in bureaucratic situations, than the two previously mentioned illnesses, placing it higher on the spectrum, and last, but not least, the schizoid personality disorder has proven to have the most wide spread consequences in the form of both emotional trauma and violence allocating it the highest level.
There are many movies that portray mental and psychological disorders, from these I chose the award winning movie: Rain Man. Rain Man was released on December 14, 1988. In the beginning of this movie, a car dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), learns that his father has died and returns home to Cincinnati to attend his funeral. Charlie and his father had a falling out with each other starting when Charlie was sixteen years old and decided to steal his father’s car for a victory lap around town. His father reported the car stolen, resulting in Charlie being arrested. Charlie’s friends got off with a warning, however Charlie’s father decided to leave his son in jail for two days before he got him out. Charlie’s mother died when he was two years
Mental health and its disorders are an intricate part of the individual and society. Mental health incorporates our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Understanding human behavior and the social environment in conjunction with biological, social and cultural factors helps in diagnosing and treating individuals accurately. Film can be used to understand and visualize how mental disorders may affect one’s life. This paper examines the film “Primal Fear” and explores the character Aaron Stampler and his mental illness, reviews literature on the diagnosis given and critically analyzes the film’s portrayal of the disorder.
Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a frightening film full of twists and turns that presents a highly dramatized depiction of mental health and psychiatric treatment. It fulfills a checklist of the classic elements of Hollywood’s psychological horror genre: foreboding asylums, psychiatric experimentation, dangerous mental afflictions, multiple personalities, intense hallucinations, and even lobotomy. The media’s portrayal of psychiatric disorders and treatment is an important contributor to the continued stigmatization of mental illness in our society. This paper will analyze which aspects of Shutter Island portray
Many recent movies contain this same concept, one of which is The Dark Knight. The most famous villain in the Batman series is The Joker. The Joker is considered a mass-murderer, a psychopathic killer, and an unstable character. Like Norman in Psycho, “…the Joker has often been casually diagnosed with schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” showing that through how the villain is portrayed, the viewers classify them with a certain disorder without fully being aware of what the actual symptoms of the disorder is (John Goodwin and Izzat Tajjudin). As people are classifying mental illnesses with no background information other than what is given in the movie, stereotypes for mental disorders are formed. These stereotypes vilify those who are mentally ill because they have a predetermined outlook on each illness based on a movie. Because the movies have mentally ill villains, like the Joker, the viewers will automatically think that the mentally ill are very capable at turning into a psychopathic killer. Therefore, movies like the The Dark Knight cause the viewers to believe that those who have a mental disorder can easily become monstrous due to their state of mind. The movie does not give them a chance to prove it
Abnormal psychology may be somewhat rare to catch a glimpse of in public vicinity. However, in motion pictures, numerous upon numerous forms and subtype examples of abnormal psychological disorders are perceived. As for my film of choice, I have selected Girl Interrupted. The 1999 picture features lead actress Winona Ryder, who plays the role of Susanna Kaysen, a soon-to-be patient at an exclusive mental hospital, with costar Angelina Jolie, who takes on the role of a maddened, wound up sociopath. Encased within the film, Susanna Kaysen displays the signs and symptoms of a woman with borderline personality disorder.
“Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified.” Determining sanity wasn't always prominent; the studies of mental health and psychology have improved greatly since the late 1960’s, but some could argue that there are still many disorders we do not understand. This movie envelopes the problems and treatment of patients during this era. Not only in a time of economic and racial disturbance, but the stereotypes and inequality for women are exemplified during this motion picture.