Does Hollywood Promote Mental Health Stigmatization?
Does Hollywood Promote Mental Health Stigmatization? Tuesday August 26, 2008#spacer{clear:left}#abc #sidebar{margin-top:1.5em}zSB(3,3) The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is calling on members to write to studio executives at Warner Brothers and screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan about the portrayal of people with paranoid schizophrenia in Batman: The Dark Knight. In the movie, one of the Joker’s henchman is described as a “paranoid schizophrenic” with the “type of mind” who is attracted to villains. NAMI is saying that this segment of the movie promotes a false stereotype about people with schizophrenia — that they are violent and evil. While in this case the subject of stigma is people with schizophrenia, there are plenty of examples of movies and television shows that unfairly depict people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). For example, an episode of ABC’s Ugly Betty last season included an over-the-top depiction of a woman described as having BPD. Sho
