The Skewed Image of Schizophrenia
Community: Individuals with schizophrenia
Issue: The misrepresented image of people with schizophrenia
Research Question: Why are some symptoms of schizophrenia romanticized and people with the disorder portrayed as dangerous and violent in media?
Thesis: Media falsely portrays schizophrenia as a dangerous and violent disorder and dramatizes the symptoms to control public perceptions; this is largely done out of ignorance and to create a more dramatic and interesting storyline, but its effects are serious.
Research Proposal By: Allyson Cromwell
The Main Issue or Problem:
“Many people with schizophrenia experience stigma caused by other people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior; this can lead to impoverishment, social marginalization, and low quality of life” (Thornicroft, G., 2009). The way schizophrenia is portrayed by TV shows, movies, and even the news is often overdrawn and overdramatized. These forms of media can shape people’s beliefs and lead them toward generalizations that aren’t true. When people hold the belief that people with schizophrenia are dangerous, heavily delusional, and violent it affects the way these people are treated. Poverty and schizophrenia, along with a multitude of mental disorders, are often connected – mental illness is 2.5 times higher in people below the poverty line. Although many disorders have a severe impact on one’s ability to function in society, disorders like schizophrenia vary in severity from person to person and the stigma surrounding it makes it very difficult to attain and maintain a job. This can make it almost impossible for someone to get and maintain the funds necessary to eat, have a stable living space, and pay for transportation. Therefore, if someone can’t get a job or transportation to their job, it becomes hard to stay above the poverty line and these individuals often fall below it. Social marginalization is another issue for people with schizophrenia. When people think of schizophrenia, they often think of a dangerous, crazy, delusional person with multiple personalities. This is seldom the case, and the way people have come to see this disorder makes it more difficult to form personal relationships, friendships, and even gain common courtesy and respect among “normal” people. With financial strife and lacking personal relationships, the quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia is diminished significantly and this can often worsen the symptoms and cause further issues. Someone who goes by the name Noise on a forum for people who have schizophrenia writes, “The mental health stigma from movies/media sucks. I’ve literally been asked if i hear voices that want me to kill people. And not to mention it made me so scared to accept my condition. Cause I thought it made me a bad scary person.” This shows that even people with schizophrenia can come to the belief that the disorder makes you dangerous and violent because of how it is seen and portrayed.
Why This Issue Is Compelling to Me:
“Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%–5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population” (Mental Health Myths and Facts, 2017). Finding out the truth about many disorders, particularly schizophrenia, was shocking to me because I too held the same beliefs many people do regarding the disorder. Before taking a course in psychology, I had believed that people with schizophrenia were dangerous, constantly had visual and auditory hallucinations, and had multiple personalities. Learning that this was not the case made me question and think back on every movie or TV show that had shown this and had influenced my perceptions on the subject. I have since wondered why this is the case and what effects this has on people with schizophrenia. My dad worked at a mental health facility and has shared with me many stories of people with schizophrenia whose issues became more severe because of the way they were seen and treated by society. Many of these people were unable to find a job and once employed some shared that they were marginalized by coworkers and employers. There are anti-discrimination laws in place to protect people with mental illness, but these laws don’t have control over people’s perceptions and judgements the way media does. Seeing the truth about mental illness, schizophrenia especially, has opened my eyes to the issues our misinformed perceptions can cause.
Intended Audience:
My intended audience for this research is high school and college aged people of all races and genders in my hometown of South Lake Tahoe, California. I know from experience at our local high school and college that there are minimal efforts to get people informed and educated about mental illness. The high school celebrates and holds events for mental health awareness month, but having gone to these events, I know personally that the main targets for education and awareness are anxiety and depression. Although these issues may be much more prominent for young adults at this age, schizophrenia is never taught about or brought to the attention of students. Unless you register in a psychology course, or have a personal interest in the subject, this information does not reach you except for through the media and public perceptions. Results from a survey of City College students showed that about half of the participants believe all people with schizophrenia hallucinate and over half believe most people with schizophrenia have multiple personality disorder. Around 40% of participants believe people with schizophrenia to be more violent and dangerous than the average person and these same responders were the ones who gained these perceptions from movies and TV shows (Cromwell, 2020). These false perceptions can be changed with information and education. Additionally, having gone to the local community college, I never saw information on or heard about any events regarding mental health. There was no advocacy for people struggling with mental health issues at all; there were no posters, signs, or any easily accessible way to get help or seek information on this topic. Putting this information out there for students who are in such a formidable period of their lives can help to shape how they treat and see people with schizophrenia and a multitude of mental illnesses as they mature into adulthood. This specific group should be targeted because as they grow into political leaders, government officials, spokespeople, media creators, and become part of influential groups of individuals, they will have the knowledge to guide future generations and put an end to the discrimination experienced by people with mental illness. An educator’s guide called Talking About Mental Illness says, “Stigma continues to be a huge problem for people living with mental illness. It undermines a person’s sense of self, relationships, well-being and prospects for recovery. Communities make a difference through education and awareness programs.”
Advocacy Plan:
I have a two-step advocacy plan with the goal being educating high school and college aged individuals about schizophrenia and various other mental illnesses. The first step involves attending the local education board meetings at the high school and introducing a plan for implementing a mental health education section in the mandatory freshman health class during the time when they take community member suggestions and comments. I would use information from a resource I found called “Talking About Mental Illness – Teacher’s Guide” as a base for my argument along with ways this could be implemented. The second step of my plan is to go to the local community college and hand out fliers with the symptoms of schizophrenia and some of the lesser known, but unfairly portrayed mental disorders like multiple personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and autism. In these fliers I would also put the information of various psychotherapists and mental health clinics in the area. Getting the information out there is in my opinion the best way to advocate for this community and minimize the marginalization they experience. Targeting a younger audience can help future generations and especially the next generation of adults be more aware and conscious of these disorders and what their affects really are.
Annotated Bibliography:
Mental Health Myths and Facts (2017). Retrieved from: https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/mental-health-myths-facts
This article from mentalhealth.gov lays out several myths surrounding mental illness and aims to correct those myths by providing facts and evidence to support their arguments. I will use this source to illustrate what kinds of things people get wrong about mental illness and what false claims are constantly made about mental disorders. I will also use the information given regarding the correction of the myths to support my argument, specifically that mentally ill people are often not violent or dangerous and are more commonly the victims of violent crime and hate.
Noise. (2020) The portrayal of mental illness in horror films. Retrieved from: https://forum.schizophrenia.com/t/the-portrayal-of-mental-illness-in-horror-films/216269/4
This source is a forum for people with schizophrenia who discuss issues and situations they face and seek advice or understanding from people of their community. The specific post I used is one about how inaccurate mental illness is portrayed in horror films. Most users who responded agreed that the portrayal is overexaggerated and caused them some confusion as to why schizophrenia is shown in an almost entirely dangerous and violent manner. One user who I quoted as evidence to show the impact of these displays said that perceptions about schizophrenia had made her afraid to receive her diagnosis and thought it made people violent and bad. She also commented that many people have asked her if she hears voices that make her want to kill people and noted how taken aback she was because this has not been her experience in the slightest.
Cromwell, A. (2020). Survey Monkey. Retrieved from: https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/wih2_2BXBLO_2FeyWNAvmDa6vKNU6_2F_2BtyFJo6nhMahjfsqQLgZ_2F90LI0eFbttorDKbIQ
This is survey I conducted with my peers in a writing class at the City College of New York. I will use the survey results to show the perceptions of schizophrenia as well as the source of these beliefs. There were 14 participants and 5 questions which asked things like, “Do all people with schizophrenia have hallucinations?” and “Do people with schizophrenia usually have a split personality or many personalities?” These questions both received an answer of yes at or above 50%. The question in which I asked where they gathered their perceptions from had an answer of “TV or movies” that was submitted for 50% of the group. This answer was selected by the same people who had selected yes on the aforementioned questions.
Thornicroft, G., Brohan, E., Rose, D., Sartorius, N., & Leese, M. (2009, January 21). Global pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination against people with schizophrenia: A cross-sectional survey. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673608618176
This article is about a study which was done in 27 countries and had 732 participants who have schizophrenia. They looked at the discrimination they experience as well as anticipated discrimination in situations like looking for a job, keeping a job, making and keeping friends, relationships with family members, and romantic relationships. In this study, they found that rates of both anticipated and experienced discrimination are consistently high among all 27 countries and have had detrimental effects on the quality of life for these individuals. I will use this study to show the effects of the stigma surrounding mental illness, specifically which areas of life discrimination has and can have heavy hitting effects.
Steep, B. (2001). Talking about Mental Illness: A guide for developing an awareness program for youth [PDF]. Toronto, Canada: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Retrieved from: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/guides-and-publications/tami-teachers-guide.pdf
This source is a guide for educators to teach about different mental disorders. It talks about the stigma surrounding mental health and the many false perceptions and myths surrounding the subject. It aims to properly educate students about these disorders with things like symptoms, stigma, case studies, diagnosis, where to get help, and includes several follow up activities. This guide will be used as a part of my advocacy plan and potentially shown to the education board in South Lake Tahoe as a reference for how to integrate this information into the curriculum.
