Shizophrenia In The Media Essay

Various studies and research has shown that most people gain knowledge about mental illnesses from mass media. Through news reportings, television shows, movies, and other mediums, there is a strong misrepresentation of those with schizophrenia in the United States; they are often portrayed as extremely violent, incompetent, and dangerous. The false portrayals of schizophrenia in media leads to assumptions and ignorance. Thus, there should be more communication between professionals and the media to reduce the highly negative stigma surrounding schizophrenia.

In 1997, a study conducted by The National Mental Health Association found that people mostly get their information about mental illnesses from mass media. Smith cited these results as

70 percent of information coming from television, 58 percent from newspapers, 51 percent from television news, 34 percent from news magazines, and 25 percent from the internet. Today, handheld devices, public wifi, and 24/7 access to news outlets and entertainment make learning information about mental illnesses easier than ever.
Schizophrenia includes symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, and unorganized thinking. Schizophrenia is often noted as one of the worst mental illnesses. In 2002, the annual costs for schizophrenia in the United States was $62.7 billion, and skyrocketed to $155.7 billion in 2013. Schizophrenia is among of the worse mental illnesses because the inability of individuals to recognize reality and their own thoughts results in severely impaired functioning. Though media suggests, violence is not a symptom of schizophrenia nor does the illness directly cause it. Research actually suggests that individuals with schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of violent crimes rather than committing them. The driving forces behind violent schizophrenic acts include substance abuse, history of violence including abuse and crime history of parents, demographics such as age and sex, and stressors such as unemployment and victimization. This paper is not meant to argue that schizophrenic patients never commit violent crimes; while they of course are capable and have committed crimes before, the media often enhances the view that a killer must have been schizophrenic and confuses schizophrenia with other mental illnesses.
The influence that Hollywood has on forming views about mental illnesses is significant. In a study featured in the Psychiatric Services journal, Patricia Owen examined 41 movies released between 1990 and 2010 that featured a character with schizophrenia. Owens found that 42 schizophrenic characters featured in these movies portrayed violent behavior; one third were involved in homicides and one fourth committed suicide.
The 2000 film Me, Myself, and Irene produced in the United States, revolves around the character Charlie, who has a psychotic breakdown and develops a split personality, Hank.

Starring the popular Jim Carrey, Me, Myself, and Irene is a comedy that gained the attention of many and attempted to make light of the serious illness that affects millions of people. Hank is a violent character who indeed portrays symptoms of split personality such as unpredictable mood changes, however these are not symptoms of schizophrenia which is used as a diagnosis in the film. In one scene, his bosses remind him of his illness. “Doctors have diagnosed you with having a split personality,” says one officer. “A schizo,” says the other immediately after. This scene is representative of the illusion that the media creates regarding mental illnesses. Split personality is not the same as schizophrenia. However, the movie interchangeably uses the two illnesses throughout the film. Later, when Charlie is taking medication for his illness, a co-worker asked what it was for. He responds with, “advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage.” Not only is this an over exaggerated diagnosis, the use of both split personality and schizophrenia throughout the film portrays that filmmakers are uneducated. Me, Myself, and Irene easily allows for viewers to gain a misrepresentation of schizophrenia which leads to the increased negative

stigma.
The same ignorance was once portrayed in a John Deere lawnmower advertisement that read, “The World’s First Schizophrenic Lawnmower” because it featured three different functions, or personalities. The agricultural machinery company attempted to define one of their products as mentally ill, but got it wrong. Further, using a mental illness to promote a product is highly unethical. Although John Deere removed this advertisement from circulation, the message that split personality disorder and schizophrenia as the same disorder was read by many.
In the popular drama, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, various instances of characters with schizophrenia arise. In season two, an episode titled “Noncompliance” features a schizophrenic patient as the primary suspect in the stabbing of a student when he stopped taking his medicine. Another episode, “Blinded” revolves around a schizophrenic man, Saul Picard, who kidnapped and raped young girls, leaving one to die. As he was being arrested in the episode, he slammed a detective into the car causing the detective temporary blindness. Further, he had violent outbreaks in the courtroom and tried to hang himself in prison because he wanted the death penalty. In a study titled, “The Portrayal of Schizophrenia in Television: An Experiment Assessing How Viewer Attitudes Are Affected,” Lindsey Hand asked participants to watch two episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. One of the episodes was “Blinded” and the other episode featured a homicide in which the suspects did not have a mental illness whatsoever. The study found that after watching “Blinded,” viewers were more likely to assume that people with schizophrenic individuals are dangerous.
Although fictional television shows and films are successful in shaping viewer’s mindsets of schizophrenia, news stories in both print and on tv have a profound impact as well. In June of 2016, the results of a twenty-year study were published in Health Affairs. The study examined 400 random news stories that covered mental illnesses from 1994 to 2014. These news stories came from the most used news outlets of the United States including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. It found that 55 percent of these stories covered mental illnesses in regards to violence, mostly including gun violence and mass shootings or family abuse. Researchers also found that only one percent of newspaper stories featured cover page stories of mental illnesses and violence in 1994 to 2004 but from 2005-2014, it jumped to 18 percent. Furthermore, schizophrenia was the mental illness most often linked to violent crimes at 17 percent.
In an opinion piece featured in The New York Times titled “Our Failed Approach to Schizophrenia,” psychiatrist Paul Steinberg writes on the need for more mental illness education and health care. However, he then links a mass shooting directly to schizophrenia. “We may never know with certainty what demons tormented Adam Lanza, who slaughtered 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, though his acts strongly suggest undiagnosed schizophrenia,” Steinberg notes. While Steinberg is right about the necessity for increased awareness of this disease, he made the mistake of attaching gun violence to schizophrenia. Although users should be able to trust news outlets more than Hollywood’s movies and television shows, it is proven that even the United State’s most used forms of information dissemination includes views and assumptions about schizophrenia that may not be true.
Though all forms of mass media associate violence with schizophrenia, studies suggest that schizophrenic patients are not always the ones committing crimes and are more likely to be victims. Between 1989 and 1991, researchers surveyed 172 schizophrenic individuals and police activity in Los Angeles. The study found that “violent victimization was 75 to 120 percent higher among individuals with schizophrenia than among the general public” Furthermore, the reporting of violent crimes linked to schizophrenic individuals is “highly disproportionate to actual rates of violence.” Lastly, researchers emphasize that the over- and misreporting of violence and mental illness is detrimental to our society in that it leads to patients not seeking help and creates a barrier between healthy and mentally-ill individuals.
The illness itself is not the only cause of impairment for those with schizophrenia. The negative and false portrayals of schizophrenia damages the identity of those with the illness and causes hesitation for seeking help. Patrick Corrigan found that individuals with particularly severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, face “the threat of social disapproval or diminished self esteem that accompanies the label may account for underused services.” The stigma inhibits individuals from seeking care because they may believe they cannot be helped or they are too “crazy.”
In the book, The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change, author Stephen P. Hinshaw lends the story of Esso Leete who when diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, learned the awful stigma surrounding the illness; she was denied her driver’s licence and college education after being diagnosed. Another idea of the negative stigma associated with schizophrenia is that people with this illness are not competent enough to lead normal lives, learn, and interact with others on a daily basis. Hinshaw provides that not all schizophrenic patients submit to this stigma once they are diagnosed and further, some are perfectly competent enough to recognize the false implications people assume about them and their illness. He says, “Leete’s impassioned words make it clear that experiences of stigmatization are extremely salient to people with mental disorders. This account also provides evidence that such persons can present cogent accounts of societal reactions and personal responses.”
Mental illness is not an identity. However, the stigmatization of schizophrenia, especially because of the severity, can lead to individuals labeling and assuming that a schizophrenic person can never perform normal functions. The inaccurate portrayal of a schizophrenic individual could “violate their civic rights, self-image, and family life; and could be a cause for employment and housing discrimination” noted by Klin and Lemish in the Journal of Health Communication.
Is labeling a character schizophrenic truly necessary for the success of a show, film, or advertisement? Should news outlets continue to link a violent crime with a schizophrenic individual without proper evaluation? Producers of mass media must understand the power they have to shape beliefs of users. Given that many viewers and readers of mass media are not psychology students or medical professionals, the misrepresentations and diagnosing characters with schizophrenia leads to viewers having a completely distorted view of the illness. Violence in the media will never vanish as crimes will always happen and viewers have a longing for violent entertainment. However, through partnering with professionals, the representations of schizophrenic individuals should be accurate and help to reduce the negative stigma surrounding schizophrenia.