Schizophrenia in the movies

Ok, I think it's safe to say that many people get their impression of what schizophrenia really is from how it is portrayed in the media. And I think it's safe to say that the impression created by schizophrenia is bad. Before I learned anything about schizophrenia I would automatically think it was a crippling disorder, the worst of the worst; it would leave you in the looney bin away from society. But that would be horrendous, especially since 1 in every 100 Americans will get the disorder. Doing research on the disorder, I still see that a misinformed attitude there; people think it is "horrifying" or "torturous," they see them as "victims." And sure, if you want to call a cancer patient a victim then you can use that word, but most people, thanks to the media, have conceived this negative perception thanks to Hollywood.

According to a study done about portrayals of schizophrenia in 41 contemporary movies (1990-2010), most patients were dangerous or violent towards others, ten committed suicide and one-third actually became homicidal. Most were seen to be unpredictable. Five characters had paranormal abilities, and seven had some sort of genius or special talent. Most movies created the idea that schizophrenia is a losing battle, medication, love, and assistance cannot help. Check out this video of a man with disorganized schizophrenic having a "bad day" (he starts talking about his hallucinations on 4:25). 

Does he look unpredictable or capable of going off on some killing spree, or possibly killing himself? He does look disturbed by his disorder, which is natural, but to go to the extent of what movies generally depict?


Then again, one must play devil's advocate and remind themselves that .02 percent of schizophrenics can become violent or have incredibly wild episodes. Movies are meant to depict interesting stories, so one could say that movies about schizophrenics are based on that .02 percent. It is just important to make those movies accurate towards the disease so the correct perception can be made. For me, I want to make my character have realistic symptoms but at the same time, make them movie-worthy. The man we see in the video is already having some pretty vivid hallucinations, seeing letters written on walls and hands coming from his lamp. I want to intensify what he is feeling, focus on paranoia and auditory hallucinations. But I do not want to help these negative stereotypes thrive by making him kill himself or others or by spewing out wrong information about the disorder. I just want to show what a bad episode and lack of medication can bring forth. 

I remember when I first thought of making this idea with scary situations that I couldn't really explain or with some sort of hallucination, me and the friends I was discussing it with said: "just make him schizophrenic." I know now that although schizophrenia does provide a pathway to use interesting filming techniques and unique story lines, it is not a free pass to do whatever I want. If I can't explain something, the disorder is not something I can hide behind at all times, I just need to improve my plot-line.

Thanks for reading and I'll be going more in depth about the movies in the study in another post.

Owen, Patricia R., Ph.D. "Portrayals of Schizophrenia by Entertainment 

 nnnMedia: A Content Analysis of Contemporary Movies." 

 nnnPsychiatry Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. <http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.201100371>.