TV dramas give misleading view of mental illness, claims report

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Television dramas too often portray characters with mental health problems as "dangerous", according to a study of peak-time programmes.

Almost half (45%) of fictional characters with mental illness have storylines depicting them as violent or posing a threat to others, says a report by Shift, the campaign to tackle the stigma associated with mental issues.

In addition 63% of references to mental health in TV soaps and drama were "pejorative, flippant or unsympathetic". Terms included: "crackpot", "a sad little psycho", "basket case" , "where did you get her from, Care in the Community?" and "he was looney tunes".

The study, by the Glasgow Media Group, examined three months of drama programmes on British terrestrial channels between 4pm and 11pm from 1 January this year. It found 74 episodes from 34 different programmes contained mental illness-related story lines.Of those story lines, there were 33 instances of violence towards others, including a character in Channel 4's Shameless attacking her partner, and an escaped schizophrenic patient in Channel 5's CSI:NY killing people to avenge his girlfriend's murder.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/22/tv-programmes-mental-illness

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CSI: NY is an American program originally broadcast by CBS; the character might as well be the Compass Killer. The group website is glasgowmediagroup.org, but I couldn't find a copy of the study there.

[hyphenate]

1. TV does have some problems

with depicting mentally ill characters, I agree, but it's awfully hard to write a TV show about serial killers and other murderers without pointing out that they're deranged and mentally unstable.

[davidinalameda]

3. just because one is unstable

does not make one ill

big difference

[hyphenate]

5. I wholly agree

with you. I was just trying to point out, in a flippant way, that TV exaggerates a lot of things in order to write episodes of weekly, scripted TV shows.

As someone who suffered from clinical depression, I am quite aware of how the world sees those who have even a hint of a medical/mental disorder. In fact, I have a very dysfunctional family who thinks I'm the one who's "nuts" because I wasn't afraid to see out some help for when I needed it.

But people forget that TV is NOT reality. Or at least it never used to be. Even now, when there is a network that claims its shows are part of "actuality," they're nothing but freak shows, where people can leer at the people who aren't exactly "normal."

Scripted TV is filled mainly with archetypes, and while they no longer wear black or white hats, the situation is the same: good v. evil. People who start to look at TV in terms other than "entertainment" are the ones who need to find other hobbies and purge their lives of associating TV with any level of reality.

[Rozlee]

4. Actually, there's a difference between what some clinicians consider full blown pychiatric disorders

and personality disorders. Actually, they're both technically the same according to which ever literature you read. You have histrionic personality disorder, social anxiety disorder, etc. Then, you have psych disorders that are considered psychosis such as schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder, hallucinations, etc. Most of these don't lead to violent behavior although they can lead to suicidal ideation. The one that serial killers most seem to have in common is anti-social, or sociopathic disorder. This is a condition that at it's most mild is usually the boss that seems to get a thrill out of manipulating his workers, punishing and controling all those around him/her and using sexual harassment, threats of demotions, firings and other sadistic behavior. This behavior is amped up to the nth degree in a serial killer like the Green River Killer and Ted Bundy. But, technically, from a legal viewpoint, since they know what they're doing and not having hallucinations, or suffering from a schizophrenic divorce from reality, they are considered sane. It's terrible that we live in a society where a majority of Americans will suffer from a mental disorder at some time in their lives and that may be considered dangerous because of it. Even worse, that many won't have the financial resources to care for their illness and might even wind up at that great repository for so many of the mentally ill--prison.

[DCKit]

2. TV? Politics is the frontrunner on this issue - where mental illness is celebrated nt

[Posteritatis]

10. Really? Politics celebrates suffering from bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, or dissociation?

That's news to me.

Or are you yet another DUer who thinks "mental illness" and "Republican" are synonyms?

[Kali]

6. TV gives misleading view of EVERYTHING

and I have to wonder at ITS roll in mental illness

[quakerboy]

7. No joke

According to TV every trash bag on the roadside has mutilated body parts in it, every respectable man will cheat on his wife(or at least come dramatically close) and all kids can win a talent contest at will. Or something.

[Posteritatis]

11. Its tendency to stigmatize mental illness can't be helping

I know that's probably not what you meant, and you probably do have a point given some of the absolutely ridiculous things TV's glorifying these days (like that new show on A&E where they take obviously disturbed children and convince them they have supernatural powers), but several decades of the "mental illness = crazed slasher type or worse" stuff can't exactly be encouraging people who actually do have problems to rush to get diagnosed and treated.

[jancantor]

8. Not surprising. TV dramas give a misleading view of almost

everything. God knows I wouldn't rely on CSI for anything remotely resembling realism.

[Odin2005]

9. No shit. look how many bigots here think the mentally ill are all violent teabaggers.

It's DISGUSTING!

[MedicalAdmin]

12. You got the order reversed.

We don't think the mentally ill are teabaggers. Quite the reverse.

[Posteritatis]

13. No, he doesn't

I've seen several threads where "mentally ill = Republican" has been trotted out explicitly several times each in the last week alone.

Your own "my political opponents are just mentally ill" crack isn't quite the same, but it's in the general neighborhood.

[MedicalAdmin]

14. A couple of points

First, I haven't read any posting that equate the mentally ill with republicans, which is an insult to the mentally ill.

My point was not to insult the mentally ill, but to point out that the behavior of every teabagger I have observed, met, or heard of exhibits a certain level of disturbance at the very least. Are they diagnostically ill? I think perhaps. It's dead certain that they need help.

I am curious, how is it that you feel that I have offended? I want to know so that I don't give offense out of ignorance.

[Doctor_J]

15. Who believes TV dramas are realistic?

They're dramas. As in dramatized. As in fiction.

duh.