Do more to end stigmatising of mental illness

THE EDITOR, Madam:

EVERY YEAR in May, designated Mental Health Awareness Month, various mainstream media (news, social and entertainment) platitudinously state or promote the obvious: that society, collectively and as individuals, must encourage common dialogue towards far more fruitfully preventing and treating mental illness.

Needless to say, everyone will agree, at least publicly, that stigmatising such an illness and, by extension, its bearers should have ceased long ago.

But then that’s basically as far as it goes.

Unlike the loud and apparently quite effective voices lobbying the news, social and entertainment media against reinforcing stereotypes based on skin colour, sexuality, gender and even genderbending, there’s no comparable influential protest voice against reinforcing stereotypes based on mental illness. I believe it’s called the squeaky-wheel effect.

When it comes to irresponsibly stereotyping and/or stigmatising people, specifically those living with schizophrenia, the 2008 hit movie The Dark Knight (as overall entertaining as it was) could be a textbook example.

In one shameful scene, the glorified Batman character recklessly grumbles to the district attorney character, Harvey Dent, that the sinisterly-sneering clearly conscience-lacking murderer he has handcuffed to a wheeled stretcher is “a paranoid schizophrenic – exactly the kind of mind that the Joker attracts.”

(I should add here, however, that I rather enjoyed and appreciated the relatively sympathetic theme on poverty, and especially mental illness, in the 2019 film Joker.)

Like The Dark Knight, the 2021 horror flick Old also stigmatises schizophrenia via a creepy character’s violent behaviour.

We have entered the third millennium, yet a 4 out of 4-starrated Hollywood hit movie as well as a much more recent film, could still be readily found flagrantly demonising characters based on their mental illness.

There was no societal or vocal condemnation. It seemed to not matter that people living with schizophrenia are generally more likely to harm themselves and/or be a victim of violence, than they are to harm others.

Frank Sterle Jr

White Rock, BC

Canada