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Alexander Miller
Professor Suzanne Ingram
English 1103
11/12/15
How the Media Influences Mental Illness Image
What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of a mentally ill person?
A silent, social outcast waiting for a chance to seriously injure somebody? A person with a
multitude of voices in their head telling them evil thoughts? Or a person who is just anxious
around people? Come on, be honest. I would be willing to bet that you thought of at least one of
the first two examples. Now, why are those two individuals the people you thought of? Is it
because it is true or did someone plant that thought into your head? Did someone influence your
opinion of mentally ill so badly that whenever you think of one you automatically think of a
Hannibal Lector-esque maniac? Who could have done this to you? Well the answer is probably
somewhere around you right now: television, newspapers, radio, books, magazines, the internet,
etc. In other words, the media. The media has heavily influenced the image of the mentally ill in
todays society by spreading false information about the mentally ill, sensationalizing only
certain aspects of psychiatric disorders, and devaluing people with a mental illness in society.
The treatment of the mentally ill in society has always been a huge problem. Even in the
Middle Ages the mentally ill were often labeled as witches and assumed to be inhabited by
demons, (Timeline, pbs.org). At this time, any person acting strangely were accused of
being a witch. If you were accused, you would immediately be shunned from society or even
killed. Only in the late 1700s did any sort of change happen when French physician Phillipe

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Pinel saw how mistreated the mental patients in France were. He took over the Bictre insane
asylum and allowed the patients to be freer in a warmer environment, (pbs.org). This as a huge
step in the right direction because the mentally ill are no longer being punished for being
themselves. Of course, there were still other places where mistreatment still occurred but change
has got to start from somewhere. I know what youre wondering. What is going on in the
United States? Well, I can tell you its not good. It took about a century for the US to get caught
up. In 1840, U.S. reformer Dorothea Dix observed that mentally ill people in Massachusetts,
both men and women and all ages, are incarcerated with criminals and left unclothed and in
darkness and without heat or bathrooms. Many are chained and beaten, (pbs.org). Youd think
that the US would be one of the worlds leaders for reform but it did not take until 1940 for
significant change. This year was when Harry Truman signed the National Mental Health Act in
1949. The purpose of this act is to research better treatment options for the mentally ill so they
can be cured, not subdued, (pbs.org). This was huge because it inspired the making of the
National Institute of Mental Health whose goal is to transform the understanding and treatment
of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery,
and cure. (About NIMH, NIMH.NIH.gov) The NIMH is still open today. But people still are
having trouble
If you have watched television you might notice one thing about what the media think
what the typical mentally ill patient to be like. They all seem to be anti-social, gibberish
speaking, serial killers. If you live in the real world, this idea is completely wrong. According to
Stuart Heather, One in four mentally ill characters kill someone, and half are portrayed as
hurting someone, making the mentally ill the group most likely to be involved in violence (2).
This is an extremely overdramatic representation of how the typical mentally ill individual

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behaves. This causes people to link the mentally ill with violence even though this is not always
the case. The Institute of Medicine says that, the contribution of people with mental illnesses to
overall rates of violence is small, and further, the magnitude of the relationship is greatly
exaggerated in the minds of the general population (2006) If the vast majority of people with a
mental illness are not considered to be violent than why is a quarter of them depicted as such on
television? These types of assumptions about people do not help anybody in this case. The
mentally ill need our help, not our unjustified fear.
Another myth the media likes to tell the public is that no mentally ill person can be a part
of a functioning society. They are unable to take care of themselves or anybody else, hold down a
decent job, and think straight. About one in seventeen Americans currently has a serious mental
illness (The Neglect of Mental Illness Exacts a Huge Toll, Human and Economic, 2012). The
number of mentally ill people is a lot more than people think. They play a much bigger role in
society than the media would lead us to believe. This type of negative thinking leads to the largescale discrimination of the mentally ill. They are less likely to obtain a job, a higher education,
and a loan from the bank according to The Scientific American. All of this is because of this
unjustifiable fear of the supposed unpredictability of the mentally ill. Ill give you an example
of one individual who had a mental illness. His name was Abraham Lincoln. Yes, former United
States President Abraham Lincoln suffered from chronic depression according to National
Alliance of Mental Illness. Even though Lincoln had depression, he still found a way to bring
amazing change to this country.
In many movies, television shows, books, and media stories, mental illness is limited to
Psycho killers, crazy girlfriends, unhinged stalkers, languishing mental patients, and schizo
criminals (Uwajaren, Mental Illness: How the Media Contributes To Its Stigma) These all

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seem to have one thing in common; they are scary, unpredictable, controlling people. These
stereotypes reflect exactly what the media and society think of the mentally ill. They are
forgetting that these people need our help and attention. Some examples of these stereotypes are
The Joker from Marvels Batman series, Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Hannibal from The
Silence of the Lambs, John Doe in Se7en, Jack Torrence from The Shining, etc. This list can go
on and on. All of these characters are insane, criminals who have hurt/killed people. All of these
characters have some sort of mental illness. These characters might be fictional but they do
represent what society thinks of the mentally ill. There is more to mental illness than these
unrealistic stereotypes. But this is Hollywood we are talking about. They are known to include
harmful stereotypes into their movies. But what about the one source of entertainment that is
supposed to be completely factual and unbiased? The news doesnt do a good job covering
stories involving the mentally ill either. According to MediaMatters.com in their article The
Problem With CNN's Treatment Of Mental Health In Coverage Of Dallas Police Attack,
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota posited that "mental illness" may "lead to violence" while
discussing a recent shooting in Dallas, a problematic framing of mental health issues that feeds
false stigmas and ignores research debunking the notion of a direct causal link between
mental health and violence. The United States public sees the news as factual content and if
they hear this type of news coverage, there is no wonder why there is a link of mental illness to
violence. Even on the television show Dr. Phil where Philip McGraw gives advice to people who
need it said the mentally ill suck on rocks and bark at the moon. (I dont know how to go in
depth about this)
Now we have covered some pretty striking information so far in this paper but what does
this all of this lead to? The constant ignorance of what mental illness is in the media causes a

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huge amount of discrimination of the mentally ill in society, both in the publics minds and in the
government. In the United States, the health care system cares more about physical illness than
mental illness, both being equally as serious as the other. In an interview with USA Today,
Patrick Stewart, former Rhode Island Congressman, stated that, The USA routinely fails to
provide the most basic services for people with mental illness -- something the country would
never tolerate for patients with cancer or other physical disorders. Even a former US
congressman, the worlds most notoriously lazy creature, has said that there is a problem with the
way the mentally ill are treated. (I can cut that out if you want) Funding for the mental health
has been pretty poor as well. According to Governing.com, in 2010 the state that spent the least
amount on mental health was Idaho who spent $36.64 per person (Mental Health Spending: State
Agency Totals). That cant even get you 10 packs of Band-Aids. (I researched that) On the
other hand, the average spending for health is $4436.61 per person according to Governing.com.
Why should physical injuries have so much more attention than mental injuries? If the
government wants to take mental illness more seriously than they should at least give them more
attention.
Since I have been talking about what a mental illness isnt, what is the typical mentally ill
person like? Unsurprisingly there are a lot of misconceptions to symptoms of some mental
disorders. Schizophrenia, for example, is thought by many to cause multiple personalities,
hallucinations, and dangerous. In reality, there are multiple different types of schizophrenia.
Even though some cases of schizophrenia do cause hallucinations, it also affects other brain
functions like decision making, emotional management, and cause delusions. But, schizophrenics
do not have multiple personalities and are no more dangerous than anyone else according to the
North Eastern Ohio Medical University. Another example of a misunderstood mental disorder is

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Depression. According to Mental Health America, Depression is not something that can be fixed
by thinking positively. It is not caused by a traumatic experience in a persons life like a
breakup or a failed exam, and Depression does not just go away with time. Depression is a real,
serious illness. It should be thought as severely as heart disease and diabetes. There is no point
treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There now, hang on,
you'll get over it.' Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is
like cancer. (Kingsolver, 182)
The media has heavily influenced the image of the mentally ill in todays society by
spreading false information about the mentally ill, sensationalizing only certain aspects of
psychiatric disorders, and devaluing people with a mental illness in society. The mentally ill are
thought of as dangerous, maniacs who are discriminated against by the public and the
government. The demeaning tropes that television and Hollywood uses frequently do not help in
the matter, either. If the media does not change their ways then there is no way the public will
catch on. There needs to be a revolution but will it be televised?