paper on mental illness: help!

[Babydoll]

so, as a pysch major, in one of my classes ( abnormal pysch) I am required to write a short paper on how mental illness is portrayed by the media and such. I can use movies ( Ive thought of "as good as it gets" and " me myself and Irene") or newspaper articles, or books, ect.


I'm kind of stuck on where to start and I thought maybe one of you might be able to give me a good idea. I'd like to write about Phobias in some way I think, but I'm open to any good ideas any of you might have. Its not due untill November, but me being such an early bird, I thought it never hurts to get thinking too early on a project.

[lewisr]

As a phobic, writing a paper on a phobia would likely send me into a panic attack.



Cults are always interesting to write about though. Group/mob psychology.

[emms]

I'd love to help anyway I can. When I was in college I helped a friend write a paper on borderline personality disorder (which I have) and it's relation to "Girl, Interupted." You could, in light of what has happened in Louisiana/Mississippi, write a paper on the psychology of mob mentality or trauma as related to natural disasters. Information would be readily available. I'm sure the info is all over the net. If you need any help, PM me! Good Luck!!

[madisonsmom]

Another great movie is "A Beautiful Mind". Sorry I dont have many suggestions on what you're asking...I just thought this movie would be great if you have seen it.[img]smileys/smilies_01.gif[/img] Edited by: madisonsmom

[japa]

I was going to suggest "A Beautiful Mind" as well. My thoughts about that movie is that, although it is based upon a true story, it also reinforces the idea, which seems prevalent, that mental illness or "madness" is linked to genius. I don't know exactly what the statistics are about the % of mentally ill people who are geniuses or great artists or so on, but I was a bit disturbed when some of my friends watched that movie, and then started talking about mental illness in a romanticized way.


My first sense is that the number of geniuses with a mental illness is probably not significantly greater than the rest of the population. I worked for 6 months in a mental health crisis center as a tech doing basic chores for the patients. Well, most of them were impoverished, and I didn't encounter geniuses. My mother too had one bipolar episode in which she was delusional followed by depression. She only has an eighth grade education, and she has trouble reading and writing.


I guess that what I am trying to say is that the idea of genius and madness being connected seems to paper over the real suffering that mental illness causes people.


I think that a second image in movies might be the mentally ill person as very frightening and macabre, a good staple for horror movies. I am envisioning the movie the Ring II in which the mother is very freaky and locked up in the mental hospital. Also,Ring I in whicha girl sees the horror of a friend's death and ends up catatonic and in a mental hospital.I'm blanking out on the name of the movie, but I know that there is one with I believe that it's Michael Douglas in which the girl in that movie is in a mental institution, and she seems very eerie and frightening. Then, there is a scene at the end of the movie The Craft in which a girl is strapped down by the wrists and ankles in an isolation room. For anyone who has had a friend or relative in an institution, that ending is hard to watch. But again, it's in the context of a movie about witchcraft and the supernatural.


For papers about movies, I usually like to take the "what stereotypes are being portrayed here" approach because Hollywood rarely does a complex depiction of a story. Maybe once in a while, but not often.


In psychology, do undergrads. read Michel Foucault, the French theorist/supposed historian (historians don't think he is historical enough). He has a book called Madness and Civilization. There he traces attitudes and images of madness from medieval times in Europe through the 19th century. He posits that the mad or mentally ill increasingly became the objects of surveillance as time progressed toward the nineteenth century. Thus, they had to be institutionalized, locked up, accounted for in some way, and they became the objects of scrutiny by the medical establishment.Foucault's not a psychologist. He takes a more societal approach, but he could be interesting to look at, depending upon how long you have to write thepaper.

[tcsarah]

It would be worth watching 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' starring Jack Nicholson. It's quite an old film (mid seventies) but is well worth a look - I really enjoyed it. (Review here: http://www.filmsite.org/onef.html)


My dad used to work with mentally ill people as part of the 'care in the community' system that was brought in several years ago, where mentally ill people live within the community. He would help them with day-to day things like shopping, keeping health appointments etc. Out of all the many clients the mental health team looked after there were only one or two overthefifteen year period my dad worked there that ever posed any sort ofrisk to any of the workers, as they could turn nasty. But what I find with society in general is if they hear of somebody suffering with a mental illness such as schizophrenia, they automatically assume they are dangerous. This probably stems from the few times they have seen on the news that a murderer suffers from schizophrenia.... then the association is made. They don't think about all the murderers and serial killers out there that were not suffering from a mental illness (although how anybody can be 'sane' and do such things is beyond me).


They do always say there is a 'fine line between genius and insanity', japa - it's a good point you bring up. I know there have been many great scientists and artists who were barking, but I guess many more who were not! I always liked what the late, great (and extreme fruitcake!) artist Salvador Dali said, "The only difference between me and a mad man is that I'm not mad."


Tracey

[Babydoll]

you guys have given me a few great start up ideas. thanks! I'll let u all know how it goes!