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Mental Illness Media Analysis

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ATTENTION GETTER...As media portrayal of mental illness continues to increase, the impacts on society are becoming more obvious. Unfortunately, negative portrayals far outnumber the positive ones, this not only leads to increasing the stigma surrounding mental illness as well as glamorizing the struggles of those with mental illnesses. Art and mental illness have had a long, seemingly direct correlation. Kaufman (2017) notes that the relationship between creativity and mental illness received notice as early as the fourth century when Plato stated that madness is a “gift from heaven” (Kaufman, 2017, pg. 235). The Romantic era, Lord Byron especially, pushed the idea of the tortured artist. This idea quickly led to the belief that in order to be a true artist, the person had to have some sort of mental affliction (Kaufman, 2017). In order to gain the respect of their culture, some would fake illness or act eccentrically, however, a vast amount of artist were genuinely sick. Media provides the opportunity to educate the public and promote acceptance, unfortunately, media often promotes outdated negative stereotypes that only increase the stigma surrounding mental illness. The American Psychiatric Association (2017) notes that media …show more content…
By portraying only negative stereotypes and showing only dramatized situations, media gives a narrow view of mental illness. This parochial lens leads to a disjointed public perception Cheung (2018) uses the example of NBC’s award-winning comedy series The Big Bang Theory, which depicts the lives of scientists. One of the show’s main characters, Sheldon Cooper is an individual who is clearly living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), but instead of using the characters prominent place in popular culture to educate the public about OCD, the show often uses his illness as a punchline or to make the character seem quirky (Chueng,

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