The Role Of Mental Illness In Pop Culture

We all possess gut reactions to the things we hear and see. It is something that comes natural to us considering it is the response we have before we even realize we are having a reaction. These kind of quick judgements can be a positive or negative aspects depending on the situation; however, our general gut reaction towards seeing or hearing about someone with a mental illness is a bad one. Often times we get a feeling of uneasiness around people who are diagnosed with a mental illness and we associate words such as “psychotic” or “dangerous” without really understanding what it is like for them. In addition, the way mental illness is portrayed in pop culture, especially in movies or graphic novels, such as Arkham Asylum, does not contribute to a positive way of looking at those with psychological disorders considering they create inaccurate views. Therefore, in order to …show more content…
One common perception of people who have mental illnesses is that they are violent or criminals. Although in some instances that is the case, there are also those who are innocent and have no choice but to cope with the obstacles that come with having a psychological disorder and it is unfair for us to categorize and judge them like that. When we do that, we give those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness a harder time to cope with the news. For instance, in the article “This Is What Developing Acute Schizophrenia Feels Like,” Daniel Smith shares his story of what it was like to be diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. Smith described having acute schizophrenia as having panic attacks and sleepless nights as well as being unable to identify certain senses such as hearing or seeing things to the point where he was too afraid