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Movies: Stereotypes Defined

© Tara Kimball

I was leaning back into my worn out chair as the television continued to flicker its white snow at me. The sputtering was almost hypnotic; the sound scratchy. I reached out for the remote lying next to me and just as I was about to press play… I stopped. I hesitated. I was also a little scared. My therapist told me at our last session that this movie would allow me to see things clearer. She also told me frankly that it could make me cloud up with tears as well. This movie may also make me mad and bitter. However, I wouldn’t know exactly how the movie would affect me until I pressed that little, delicate button labeled play. Until I finally pressed it… I would simply not know how I was supposed to connect with the movie. I finally pressed the button. I decided to take the chance and I’m glad I did….

Everyone has sat during a movie and cried. Others have watched intently to see the exact pattern in the lead character’s life as they themselves experience day to day in their own lives. Movies seem to have a mystical quality to them. They are safe… unattached to us directly, but they hold meaning and symbolism at the same time. I had the chance this semester at the University of Great Falls in Montana to take a class that discussed these very issues. How are mentally ill individuals portrayed in film? Are movies a good medium to help patients connect their own disordered daily patterns, fears, anxieties, etc. in their own lives? Will movie therapy be compatible with certain personality types? In Movies, Madness, and Mental Health we looked at each of those issues in depth… exploring the meanings within films, how a certain movie could be used as a therapeutic tool, as well as the common mental health stereotypes that the movie industry has brought to being within our society.

In the movies, mental health has been portrayed in so many ways. We have schizophrenics, manic-depressives, depression, and so much more. Are these mental disorders portrayed as how they really manifest in “real” people? As it spells out in Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology by Danny Wedding and Mary Ann Boyd, movies that show mental health issues often contain certain stereotypes. These stereotypes have been seen throughout time and from one movie to the other, yet they bring with them strong feelings of stigma. Some movies bring out the stereotype of the homicidal maniac… you know… the one hacking people here and there… not caring whatsoever about what he has just done. Movies and Mental Illness also talks about the rebellious free spirit stereotype. Wedding and Boyd are describing the individual that will never give their rights or dreams for any cost… the most famous rebellious spirit was played by Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The seductress and zoo specimen are other stereotypes as well. The zoo specimen being the one that a lot of movies seem to use. Wedding and Boyd said that the, “zoo specimen is perpetuated by films that degrade people with mental illness by treating them as objects of derision or a source of amusement or entertainment for those who are “normal”. The narcissistic parasite was another stereotype that Wedding and Boyd felt made individuals that have a mental illness seem to be self-centered, demanding, and always seeking out attention. Along with individual stereotypes films also portray fallacies of the source of the individual’s mental illness. Wedding and Boyd listed three fundamental sources. The first one, the presumption of traumatic etiology, is best seen in movies that have a Freudian view in the sense that the source of the illness came from some traumatic event in the person’s childhood. The second is termed the schizophrenogenic parent. Plainly put… the parent is the root cause for the person’s mental disorder. The third we have seen in our own lifetime. The closed up next door neighbor that doesn’t come out much, but you know he has to be coming out sometime. The unusual dress (if that’s what it would be called) that your Aunt wore to dinner this time (yes… the Aunt that the family thinks is crazy), or that guy you saw running in the snow in 15 degree weather. All of these may fall into that gray area of weirdness that you may not just ignore but also cock up one of your eyebrows in disbelief. However, these individuals and even the ones doing the crazier activities are most likely just as sane as you or I. Wedding and Boyd termed this source stereotype as, “that harmless eccentricity that is frequently labeled as mental illness and inappropriately treated.” So, the next time I see my neighbor walking his lizard… I won’t think anything of it… but nod and appreciate his eccentricities.