Changing minds about representations of madness...

Studying representations of relatively disadvantaged sections of the community is one of the staple concerns of Media Studies at every level. However, if ever there was a group for whom the disadvantages of repeated stereotyping may feed the formula prejudice + power = discrimination, then it may well be those with severe mental illness.

Prominent pressure groups involved in campaigning on behalf of this group certainly think so. And so, back in June, teachers and students were invited to a special education session ahead of the first London ‘Reel Madness’ Film Festival. This event and the film screenings that followed were part-organised by two charities – Rethink (the operating name of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship) and Mental Health Media. The education afternoon featured the screening of scenes from a variety of films including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975); A Beautiful Mind (2001); and the recent Film Four production, Some Voices (2000). Also included was the challenging two-minute cinema advertisement ‘One In Four’ produced to promote World Mental Health Day in 2000 as part of the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s on-going Changing Minds campaign against the stigmatising of people with mental health problems. (See MoreMediaMag.)

Each sequence was chosen to highlight a key issue or misconception regarding aspects of madness – for example the relationship between insanity and genius that often provides the excuse for making madness the subject of mainstream movies, and which received its most recent emphasis in A Beautiful Mind. A formidable array of experts including a consultant psychiatrist, a neuroscientist, a mental health service manager and a service user were on hand to deliver their take on the clips being shown. It was a stimulating session, but one that posed more questions than answers regarding how practically this subject might be broached in class.

The ignorance issue quickly reared its head. For one thing many of the snippets were largely unfamiliar to the students (and teachers) there. Furthermore, the films from which they came are rarely, if ever, part of TV schedules, posing a potential headache when it comes to gathering such materials for classroom use. Then there was the problem that many of the portrayals screened felt as if they needed the insights of expert witnesses to place them in perspective. Quite unlike the stereotyping of groups by race, gender or sexual preference, which are familiar aspects of Media Studies, ‘madness’ is a highly technical and fought-over topic. Madness in its various forms has always been subject to a range of therapies and diagnoses – often conflicting and contradictory. So unlike other media portrayals, teachers and students are likely to feel unsure of their ground when evaluating the relative merits or otherwise of the depictions of madness they encounter.