Mental Illness And The Media Character Analysis

Tommy sits in front of the TV watching his favorite show about crime and justice. As the show progresses, a dark, disheveled character becomes a person of interest. This man, dirty and unable to walk correctly, brutally murders another man. The detectives explain his behavior: he has a mental illness. He cannot control the way he acts as his mental illness drives his insane behavior, and he will spend the rest of his life locked up in a psychiatric ward. Later in his life, Tommy begins working with a diagnosed schizophrenic. Tommy first does not believe the man, due to his trimmed hair and nice clothes. Tommy thinks to himself, certainly this man cannot have schizophrenia, he acts normal and fits right into society. Then, Tommy grows wary of

In doing so, the media shapes the way the public views mental illness by over representing violence among the mentally ill. TV programs revealed an inaccurate portrait of the real world, presenting characters with mental illness as ten to twenty times more violent than those with mental illness in the U.S. population (Parrott and Parrott 643). While some mental illnesses do lead to violence, the majority of people suffering from mental illnesses would never ever hurt anyone. However, when one in four mentally ill characters on TV kill someone and one in two hurt another character, people today readily expect violence from the mentally ill, (Stuart 102). Society can understandably distrust the actions of people with mental illnesses as certain mental illnesses do result in psychotic breaks, but when this begins shaping how they treat all mentally ill people, it becomes a problem. Instead of witnessing mental illness and formulating opinions based on real people, the media shapes the opinions of society with these stereotypes that people unconsciously assign to all mentally ill

Portrayals of mentally ill characters show viewers that people with mental illnesses can never become productive members of society, as these characters act alienated with no family or friends. The media also characterizes mentally ill people with a distinct look: disheveled and dirty. Inaccurate media portrayals nurture assumptions among the general public that people with mental illness have physically undesirable features, act unclean, and look unkempt. In his comprehensive analysis of media, researcher Signorelli reported that characters with mental illness were less likely to be employed and, when they did have jobs, more likely to be portrayed as failures (Parrott and Parrott 642). As a result, society not only expects mental illness to look like what they see on television, but refuse to believe mental illness could exist in the smart, handsome doctor or the rich, organized CEO (642). While certain mental illnesses do result in these odd actions, many act completely normal while others, while odd, could drastically improve if society would stop expecting those oddities from them. Society looks down on seeking help for mental health, discrediting mental health professionals and implying that going to them confirms “craziness.” Popular depictions of mental health professionals include the “unethical, mentally deranged, controlling shrink, prompting a widespread distrust of