Mental disorders in fiction

Works of fiction dealing with mental illness include:

In children's books

In young adult novels

  • Lisa, Bright and Dark, 1968 novel by John Neufeld. A story about a teenager's descent into madness.
  • The Underground, 1998 science fiction book by K. A. Applegate. A form of oatmeal is found to drive extraterrestrial body-snatchers insane.
  • Thirteen Reasons Why, 2007 novel by Jay Asher. About a teenage girl who is suffering from depression which results in suicide. Many other characters are also suffering from mental illnesses including bipolar, anxiety, PTSD, and also depression.
  • Saint Jude, 2011[1] novel by Dawn Wilson. Suffering from manic-depressive illness, Taylor spends her senior year of high school at a place called Saint Jude's—essentially a group home for teenagers with mental illnesses.[2]
  • Freaks Like Us, 2012 young adult novel by Susan Vaught.[3] The reader is taken on a suspenseful adventure through the mind of a schizophrenic teenage boy.[4]
  • Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, 2013[5] novel by Matthew Quick.

In mainstream literature

Motion pictures

Many motion pictures portray mental illness in inaccurate ways, leading to misunderstanding and heightened stigmatization of the mentally ill. However, some movies are lauded for dispelling stereotypes and providing insight into mental illness. In a study by George Gerbner, it was determined that 5 percent of 'normal' television characters are murderers, while 20% of 'mentally-ill' characters are murderers. 40% of normal characters are violent, while 70% of mentally-ill characters are violent. Contrary to what is portrayed in films and television, Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D., and his colleagues at Policy Research Associates found that, overall, formal mental patients did not have a higher rate of violence than the control group of people who were not formal mental patients. In both groups, however, substance abuse was linked to a higher rate of violence. (Hockenbury and Hockenbury, 2004)

Television

Many popular television shows feature characters with a mental health condition. Often these portrayals are inaccurate and reinforce existing stereotypes, thereby increasing stigma associated with having a mental health condition. Common ways that television shows can generate misunderstanding and fear are by depicting people with these conditions as medically noncompliant, violent, and/or intellectually challenged. However, in recent years certain organizations have begun to advocate for accurate portrayals of mental health conditions in the media, and certain television shows have been applauded by mental health organizations for helping to dispel myths of these conditions.

One show, Wonderland, went on the air in 2000 and only lasted several episodes. It was largely critically acclaimed, but pressure from mental health advocates and people with mental health conditions, who felt that the show perpetuated stereotypes and contributed to the stigma attached to them, led to the show's cancellation.

The Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge features multiple examples of mental illness, most prominently including Münchausen syndrome by proxy.

In 2005, the shows Huff; Monk; Scrubs; and ER all won Voice Awards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for their positive portrayal of people who manage mental health conditions. Neal Baer, executive producer of ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit also won a lifetime achievement award for his work in incorporating mental health issues into these two shows.

United States of Tara is a television show about dissociative identity disorder.

The Steven Universe franchise features characters with psychological trauma.

The animated Netflix series, Bojack Horseman dives into themes about depression, generalized anxiety, self-destructive behavior, post-traumatic stress disorder, narcissism and substance abuse

The Animated Netflix series, Arcane (TV series) presents the story of two sisters suffering from extreme trauma. Fans trust Jinx suffers from borderline personality disorder, PTSD and Schizophrenia, while Vi has extreme childhood trauma.

Video games

The game Silent Hill 2 of the same genres contains three major characters struggling with mental illness. Though their conditions are never named, two of these characters exhibit symptoms which, together with their backstories, may suggest acute dissociative amnesia; while the third character most definitively approximates body dysmorphic disorder. (The topic of dissociative amnesia is revisited in later installments of the series.) In addition, both this game and Silent Hill 3 mention various former patients of the now-abandoned town's local psychiatric hospital, with one said patient making an appearance in the latter game. Life is Strange deals with depression, suicide most notably, as the main character Max tries to prevent the suicide of one of her friends. One of the characters exhibits concerning behaviors and is prescribed medicines most often associated with bipolar and schizophrenia. It is implied he is seeing a psychiatrist.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc deals with a side character named Toko Fukawa who suffers from DID. Her first identity being a well-known writer. Her second identity was a serial killer. The next character who has a canon mental illness is Nagito Komaeda, a loved character from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair who suffers from lymphoma in stage 3 and has Frontotemporal dementia.

Final Fantasy VII implies numerous times that the main character, Cloud Strife, has some form of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Chairman Rose is shown to have a severe idée fixe about a far-off energy crisis.

Myst III: Exile features a character named Saavedro, full of despair and a justified grievance, who has been trapped alone for twenty years, certain that all his people are dead. In his journal he writes of a mental fog that he can lose himself in from time to time (he suspects for months sometimes), when he "can barely remember what I've done". He describes this fog as eating his mind and writes that he sometimes struggles to bring memories back to the surface.

See also

Notes

  1. Books › "Dawn Wilson". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  2. "Saint Jude". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  3. “Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 4 Sept. 2012, www.goodreads.com/book/show/13416089-freaks-like-us.
  4. "Freaks Like Us". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  5. Quick, Matthew (2013-08-13). Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. ISBN 9780316221337.
  6. The assumption of a clinical diagnosis of insanity has been repeatedly questioned in recent years, most notably by D. A. Boruchoff, who notes that in early modern times the concept of madness was associated with physical or moral displacement, as seen in the literal and figurative sense of the adjectives eccentric, deviant, extravagant, etc. See "On the Place of Madness, Deviance, and Eccentricity in Don Quijote,” Hispanic Review 70.1 (2002): 1–23,
  7. "... 'Palata No. 6' (1892, Ward Number Six) is Chekhov's classical story of the abuse of psychiatry. Gromov is convinced that anyone can be imprisoned. He develops a persecution mania and is incarcerated in a horrific asylum, where he meets Doctor Ragin. Their relationship attracts attention and the doctor is tricked into becoming a patient in his own ward. He dies after being beaten by a charge hand. — The symmetrical story has much similarities with such works as Samuel Fuller's film The Shock Corridor (1963), and Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest (1975). ..." (Source: Liukkonen, Petri. "Anton Chekhov". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 11 July 2010.). An online version of the story can be found at Project Gutenberg.
  8. Kent, Deborah (2003). Snake pits, talking cures & magic bullets: a history of mental illness. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 118. ISBN 0-7613-2704-5.
  9. Nilo, mi hijo
  10. Poplaski, W. E. (2007). 360 of Reading: A Literature Guide for the College Bound. Dog Ear Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-59858-379-3.
  11. Famous Psychologist: R.D. Laing. Psychologistanywhereanytime.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  12. Margaret Atwood (1973-12-30). "Diving Into The Wreck". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  13. Berman, Laura (1980-04-06). "This growing up is never really child's play". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2018-11-03 via Newspapers.com.
  14. Furst, Lilian R. (2003). Idioms of distress: psychosomatic disorders in medical and imaginative literature. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-5557-2.
  15. Books › "Effie's burning". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  16. Effie's Burning Pb (Acting Edition). Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  17. Books › "Annie Waters". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  18. Books › "kristin waterfield duisberg". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  19. "Human Traces". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  20. Books › "darkness descending". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  21. "All in the Mind by Alastair Campbell – review". The Daily Telegraph. 6 November 2008. Archived from the original on 2 May 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  22. "Atmospheric Disturbances". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  23. "Memories, Memories: Tom Webber salutes a stunning portrait of dementia". The Observer. 5 April 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2009.
  24. "Radiant Daughter". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  25. "blepharospasm". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  26. Books › "a better place by mark a. roeder". Amazon.com. Retrieved March 23, 2011
  27. "The Heart of Darkness". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  28. Challenger Deep, by Neal Shusterman, 2015 National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature, nationalbook.org/nba2015_ypl_shusterman.html#.WutLKYgvxRY.
  29. “Challenger Deep Summary & Study Guide.” BookRags, BookRags, www.bookrags.com/studyguide-challenger-deep/#gsc.tab=0.
  30. "Challenger Deep". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  31. "The Suicide of Claire Bishop". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  32. "Turtles All the Way Down". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  33. "Everything Here Is Beautiful". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  34. "Everything Here Is Beautiful". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  35. Maihack, Mike [@mikemaihack] (October 18, 2020). "1. Sorry, she was't (although she would put her life down on the line for Akila more than anyone else--even Antony) 2. Clearly a bit of ADHD (even if it was never at my forefront). From the very beginning tho--& I guess I can say this now--I wrote her with a depressive disorder" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 18, 2020 via Twitter.
  36. Perkowitz, S. (2007). Hollywood science: movies, science, and the end of the world. Columbia University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-231-14280-9.
  37. Chang, Justin (9 September 2012). "Review: 'Silver Linings Playbook'". Variety. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
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