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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 when Dorothy Dix in 1840 observed the conditions of United States mental hospitals. She
found that many patients were treated like criminals, left unclothed and cold, and even beaten
and chained. (pbs.org, Timeline). 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, Timeline).
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. On television,
one in four mentally ill characters are involved in violence which is an extreme dramatization.
(Stuart, Medias Portrayal). 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

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the relationship is greatly exaggerated in the minds of the general population (Improving The
Quality) 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 Editors, The Neglect of Mental). 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 large-scale 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) These all 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

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Torrence from The Shining, etc. The list goes 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 Media
Matters, 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 Problem) 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. These supposed trusted sources for information are spreading falsities
and myths that hurt people. There is no way around it. The media coverage of mental illness is
unacceptable and these people should look at themselves and see that theyre part of the problem.
Now we have covered some pretty striking information so far in this paper but what does
all of this lead to? The constant ignorance of what mental illness is in the media causes a 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

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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. Funding for the mental health has been pretty poor as well. In
2010 the state that spent the least amount on mental health was Idaho who spent $36.64 per
person (Governing.com, Mental Health Spending). 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 annually (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
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,

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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.