Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Stigmatization?TrivializationDepictions in FilmWhy It’s DamagingWhat’s Accurate In Media Portayals?Impact of Media PortrayalsWhat Can Be Done?

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

What Is Stigmatization?

Trivialization

Depictions in Film

Why It’s Damaging

What’s Accurate In Media Portayals?

Impact of Media Portrayals

What Can Be Done?

Close

In the aftermath of an unconscionable act of random violence, many people are inclined to label the perpetrator “crazy.” Although the criminal may have amental illness, automatically assigning the label “crazy” does a great disservice to people who live with mental illness every day.

In reality, somebody with mental illness is much more likely to be a victim—rather than a perpetrator—of violence.Calling a violent offender “crazy” spreads a dangerous stereotype and belies the complex relationship between criminality and mental illness.

The media teaches us about people with whom we do not routinely interact. This constant flow of data gives us incessant social cues about the nature of other groups of people—including which groups of people should be praised or scorned.

Media portrayalsof those with mental illness often skew toward either stigmatization or trivialization. Consequently, all forms of media—including television, film, magazines, newspapers, and social media—have been criticized for disseminating negative stereotypes and inaccurate descriptions of those with mental illness.

Gun Violence and Mental Illness: Understanding Links and Misconceptions

Stigmainvolves negative beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors directed toward people based on some distinguishing characteristics. In the case of mental health stigma, it involves the presence of mental health symptoms or a mental health diagnosis.

In other cases, stigma can also involve health conditions, disabilities, gender, race, sexuality, culture, religion, and sexuality.

Stigma happens when some person is viewed as an “other.” A person considered an “other” is denied full social acceptance.

The impact of mental health stigma is serious. Evidence suggests that it is linked to worse mental health outcomes because it reduces the likelihood that a person will seek help, receive adequate care, and adhere to their treatment plan.

Stigmatization of Mental Illness By the Media

Stigmatization of mental illness in media is abundant. For example, certain mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia are seen as being so disruptive that people with those conditions must be isolated from society.

The stigmatization of mental illness is so entwined with the media that researchers have used newspaper articles as a proxy metric for stigma in society.

Media accounts tend to focus on the individual with mental illness rather than framing mental illness as a societal issue. Consequently, media consumers are more likely to blame an individual for the illness.

Mental Illness Is OvergeneralizedPeople with mental illness can also suffer from overgeneralization in media portrayals. Every person with a specific mental health condition is expected to display the same characteristics or symptoms.

Mental Illness Is Overgeneralized

People with mental illness can also suffer from overgeneralization in media portrayals. Every person with a specific mental health condition is expected to display the same characteristics or symptoms.

For instance, common depictions are that allpeople with depressionaresuicidal, and all people withschizophreniahallucinate. In reality, 60% and 80% of people withschizophrenia experience auditory hallucinations. An even smaller number of people experience visual hallucinations.

It’s also not uncommon for media portrayals to discount that many people with mental illness don’t need to disclose their condition to everyone around them.

Perhaps most concerning, the media often portrays mental illness as untreatable or unrecoverable.

Trivialization of Mental Illness By the Media

For instance, many people with eating disorders such asanorexia nervosafeel that their condition is made out to be less severe than it really is. This is in part because people with the condition portrayed in the media often minimize its seriousness and hide the severe consequences of the disease.

The truth is, the death rate for people with anorexia is high. In reality, anorexia has one of the highest mortality rates of any mental health condition. Research suggests the risk of dying is 10 times higher for people who have anorexia nervosa.

The symptoms of mental illness are sometimes portrayed as being beneficial. For example, in the popular television seriesMonk, the protagonist is a detective with OCD. The fact that he pays close attention to detail helps him solve crimes and advance his career.

Depictions of Schizophrenia in Film

Probably the most disparaging stigmatizations of mental illness in media lie in the film portrayals of antagonists with mental illness. In particular, when characters with schizophrenia are presented as “homicidal maniacs” in “slasher” or “psycho killer” movies.

Inaccurate portrayals of mental illness in the media disseminate misinformation about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness. Unfortunately, popular movies and tv shows can exert potent influences on attitude formation.

In one study, researchers analyzed 41 movies that had been released between 1990 and 2010 for depictions of schizophrenia.

Based on the findings of the analysis, researchers drew several conclusions.

Research has also found that 75% of depictions of mental illness in popular video games are negative or stereotyped.

Why Such Portrayals Are Damaging

These portrayals are not only incorrect but damaging—and for several reasons.

They Spread Myths About Mental Illness

The portrayals of schizophrenia often focus on symptoms such as visual hallucinations, bizarre delusions, and disorganized speech, and present them as commonplace. In reality, symptoms like decreased motivation, poverty of speech, and flat affect are more common.

Several movies have spread the false stereotype that people with schizophrenia are prone to violence and unpredictable behavior. Some films even presented people with schizophrenia as being “possessed.”

These violent stereotypes influence viewers and engender harsh negative attitudes toward people with mental illness.

They Exaggerate Suicide Risk

While suicide is a significant concern for people with schizophrenia, the research on media portrayals of schizophrenia found that this risk is often exaggerated in film and tv representations. In one study, 24% of the characters with schizophrenia committed suicide.

They Misrepresent Who Is Affected

For example, characters with schizophrenia are frequently depicted as being white males, but schizophrenia disproportionately affects African Americans.It also affects men and women almost equally.

They Spread Myths About Causes of Mental Illness

Press Play for Advice On Navigating Mental Health Advice on Social MediaThis episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastpoints out the bad mental health advice you may find on social media. Click below to listen now.

Press Play for Advice On Navigating Mental Health Advice on Social Media

This episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastpoints out the bad mental health advice you may find on social media. Click below to listen now.

Not all the information presented about schizophrenia was found to be incorrect, misleading, or stigmatizing. For example, in more than half of the movies that researchers analyzed, the use of psychiatric medications was depicted or alluded to.

Nearly half the characters with schizophrenia were depicted as being poor, which aligns with epidemiological data suggesting that schizophrenia is diagnosed less frequently in people of higher socioeconomic standing.

Even when some movies get it right, the negative media portrayals—especially those that are violent—of people with schizophrenia and other severe forms of mental illness still contribute to stigmatization, stereotyping, discrimination, and social rejection.

Impact of the Media on Mental Health

Nevertheless, certain suggestions have been made on how to improve the depiction of people with mental illness in the media, such as:

As individuals who consume copious amounts of mass media and engage with social media, the best thing we can do is stop using words like “crazy” and “deranged” in a derogatory or flippant fashion. We also need to remember that it’s best to avoid making a psychiatric diagnosis outside of a clinical setting.

A Word From Verywell

Only a specialist can make adiagnosis of OCD,depression,bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental health conditions. When we give someone the label of being mentally ill without clinical evidence, we hurt people who live with mental illness on a daily basis.

14 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Thornicroft G.People with severe mental illness as the perpetrators and victims of violence: time for a new public health approach.The Lancet Public Health. 2020;5(2):e72-e73. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30002-5

Rössler W.The stigma of mental disorders: A millennia-long history of social exclusion and prejudices.EMBO Rep. 2016;17(9):1250-1253. doi:10.15252/embr.201643041

McGinty EE, Kennedy-Hendricks A, Choksy S, Barry CL.Trends in news media coverage of mental illness in the United States: 1995-2014.Health Aff (Millwood). 2016;35(6):1121-1129. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0011

Waters F, Collerton D, Ffytche DH, Jardri R, Pins D, Dudley R, Blom JD, Mosimann UP, Eperjesi F, Ford S, Larøi F.Visual hallucinations in the psychosis spectrum and comparative information from neurodegenerative disorders and eye disease.Schizophr Bull. 2014;40 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):S233-45. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbu036

Fichter MM, Quadflieg N.Mortality in eating disorders - results of a large prospective clinical longitudinal study.Int J Eat Disord. 2016;49(4):391-401. doi:10.1002/eat.22501

Kubrak T.Impact of films: Changes in young people’s attitudes after watching a movie.Behav Sci (Basel). 2020;10(5):86. doi:10.3390/bs10050086

Buday J, Neumann M, Heidingerová J, et al.Depiction of mental illness and psychiatry in popular video games over the last 20 years.Front Psychiatry. 2022;13:967992. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.967992

Sher L, Kahn RS.Suicide in schizophrenia: An educational overview.Medicina (Kaunas). 2019;55(7):361. doi:10.3390/medicina55070361

Olbert CM, Nagendra A, Buck B.Meta-analysis of Black vs. White racial disparity in schizophrenia diagnosis in the United States: Do structured assessments attenuate racial disparities?J Abnorm Psychol. 2018;127(1):104-115. doi:10.1037/abn0000309

Luo Y, Zhang L, He P, Pang L, Guo C, Zheng X.Individual-level and area-level socioeconomic status (SES) and schizophrenia: cross-sectional analyses using the evidence from 1.9 million Chinese adults.BMJ Open. 2019;9(9):e026532. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026532

Babić D, Babić R, Vasilj I, Avdibegović E.Stigmatization of mentally ill patients through media.Psychiatr Danub. 2017 Dec;29(Suppl 5):885-889. PMID: 29283984.

Kamaradova D, Latalova K, Prasko J, et al.Connection between self-stigma, adherence to treatment, and discontinuation of medication.Patient Prefer Adherence. 2016;10:1289-1298. doi:10.2147/PPA.S99136

Maiorano A, Lasalvia A, Sampogna G, Pocai B, Ruggeri M, Henderson C.Reducing stigma in media professionals: Is there room for improvement? Results from a systematic review.Can J Psychiatry. 2017;62(10):702-715. doi:10.1177/0706743717711172

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?