Maniac Breaks Free from Mental Illness Stigma
The film industry and even television companies have found tremendous success through movies and shows that have gone on to win critical acclaim and prestigious awards. It should therefore come as no surprise that a large majority of the United States adult population consumes this media regularly, with 59% of them watching cable television and 28% of them streaming television services online, a proportion that is likely to be flipped with the rise of services like Netflix and HBO Go (Lee). Perhaps this is the reason why many shows like Netflix originals have started to rack up a slew of awards and nominations, an increasing viewing audience means more popularity and either more praise or criticism for such shows. One of Netflix’s original shows, Maniac, premiered on Netflix on September 21, 2018 and has since received praise from viewers for its treatment of mental illness. Maniac is seemingly an anomaly amongst many TV shows and movies that share an unfortunate commonality—a depiction that people with mental illness are violent and highly dangerous. Stereotypes like this can easily spread from the big screen to the minds of suggestible viewers if left to propagate, which is why an increasing number of mental illness advocates have begun to criticize the media for promoting stigma around mental illness (Stuart 1). Considering the negative impact that mental illness stigma is known to have on people, it is becoming increasingly important for more TV shows and movies to portray mental illness in a realistic way without the use of negative stereotypes—much like Maniac does in its first season.
Maniac, an American miniseries written by Patrick Somerville and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone who play protagonists Owen Milgrim and Annie Landsberg, respectively (Fukunaga). Annie, who suffers from borderline personality disorder, and Owen who is a diagnosed schizophrenic, meet after joining a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. Aiming to eliminate therapy and provide a “cure” for mental illness, the pharmaceutical trial provides Annie and Owen with a series of pills that induce personalized dreams. These shared dreams lead them to become close friends and realize that they don’t need to be cured to achieve normalcy in their lives, they just need each other’s companionship. Maniac received widespread approval upon its release, garnering an approval rating of 83% amongst its audience and 84% amongst top critics (“Maniac: Miniseries”). Critics and viewers are particularly impressed with the way the show treats the topic of mental illness, an issue that most shows tend to portray negatively.
Maniac depicts mental illness in a light different from other TV shows and movies. Maniac achieves this by simply doing what many other shows choose not to do—relying on the storylines of characters instead of mental illness stereotypes for plot. For example, the character Owen breaks the stereotype that people with mental illness cannot lead a relatively normal life outside of their diagnosis. When viewers are introduced to Owen’s character, he is employed, owns his own apartment, and comes from a family with a secure financial background. These are important details because traditional media tends to insinuate that people with mental illness are societal misfits who do not share in the same everyday struggles as everyone else. It is crucial for the public to see people with mental illness as regular people and realize that the media’s negative portrayal of mental illness is not true. In fact, research shows that stigma is reduced when “members of the general public meet persons with mental illness who are able to hold down jobs” (Corrigan 17). Therefore, Maniac’s ability to show Owen as an average member of society, despite having schizophrenia, indirectly affects viewers’ perception by showing that people with mental illness can be just as normal as them. Additionally, both Owen and Annie are not given malicious characteristics such as being manipulative, violent, or driven to harm others. This is another common misconception spread by movies and TV shows, but is particularly harmful as it causes the public to fear those with mental illness (Stuart 3). Although this stereotype is popular in the media, studies actually indicate that “individuals with mental illness, when appropriately treated, do not pose any increased risk of violence over the general population” (Rueve 46). Fortunately, this harmful and false stereotype is broken in Maniac since none of the characters with mental illness exhibit violent behavior.
In contrast to Maniac, there has been a plethora of movies and TV shows released in only the last decade that portray mental illness in a stereotypical way. This is especially significant when you take into consideration how popular these movies and TV shows are, since a large audience means more people will be affected by their depictions of mental illness. M. Night Shyamalan, a writer and director best known for his supernatural movies and plot twist endings, released a movie in 2015 that exemplifies the mistreatment of mental illness in films. Shyamalan’s 2015 horror movie, The Visit, centers around two kids who visit their grandparents for the first time while their mother vacations with her boyfriend (“The Visit: Synopsis”). Throughout the movie, the grandparents exhibit strange behavior; The grandmother crawls like a dog at night, she laughs hysterically while staring at a wall, she asks the grand daughter to crawl inside the oven, and towards the end of the movie, the grandparents try to kill the children. The plot twist of the movie is that the grandparents are imposters and are actually mentally-ill patients who “escaped” the psychiatric hospital. Millions of people saw this movie on opening weekend and, surprisingly, there was not a lot of controversy surrounding the film’s depiction of the mentally ill. Perhaps this is due to audiences becoming desensitized to negative portrayals of mental illness. Whatever the reason, there were indeed a few people who noticed the film’s stigmatizing representation of mentally ill patients.
In one of the few reviews that criticizes The Visit’s treatment of mental illness, Veronique Hoebeke writes about why this “trope-filled” movie promotes mental illness stigma. Hoebeke, explains that, as someone who deals with mental illness herself, she found the depictions of characters with schizophrenia to be largely inaccurate. She recounts that the characters in the film are highly dangerous and even cannibalistic, attempting to murder the children in their sleep and bake them in the oven. Hoebeke makes a valid point that young impressionable viewers may see this portrayal of schizophrenia and think that all people suffering from schizophrenia are deceiving and murderous (Hoebeke). This review, coming from someone who suffers from mental illness herself, shows that mental illness stereotypes are offensive to people who are actually suffering from mental illness and add to the misconception that mental illness is dangerous.
In the article “Media Portrayal of Mental Illness and its Treatments,” Heather Stuart analyzes media portrayals of mental illness and what social and emotional implications they have. Heather Stuart, a researcher in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University, argues that news and entertainment outlets overwhelmingly dramatize mental illness, emphasizing characteristics of “dangerousness, criminality, and unpredictability” (1). Giving examples of movies such as, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Stuart explains that many films present psychiatric treatment as inhumane and only something suitable for malevolent individuals (2). These negative depictions in turn, she explains, influence the audience to have doubts on psychiatric treatment as a whole and the motives behind psychiatric professionals (Stuart 2). The Visit, is one of many films that shows psychiatric hospitals as a place that harbors dangerous and malicious individuals, which is a harmful depiction of what psychiatric hospitals are actually like. These stereotypes do nothing but further stigmatize psychiatric help, something that is already difficult for many of those with mental illness to seek. The Surgeon General recognizes mental illness stigma as the biggest barrier to treatment and recovery (Pescosolido 1322). Furthermore, mental illness stigma has shown to affect how much money the public invests into treating mental illness, as stigma implicates “in low service use, inadequate funding for mental health research and treatment” (Pescosolido 1322). Ultimately, stigma not only prevents people with mental illness from seeking treatment, it also alters the way society views and treats the importance of mental illness recovery.
Some have defended the media’s negative portrayal of mental illness, arguing that the media’s role is not to educate, but to entertain the public. Ryan Howes, a psychologist, writer and professor in Pasadena, California, believes a screenwriter’s job is to drive up ticket sales and that it’s “not up to them to provide us with a balanced and nuanced education” (Tartakovsky). While this argument brings up an interesting debate of whether the media is responsible for realistic depictions of real-world issues, it does not account for the unethical implications that false portrayals of mental illness can have. Howes argues that the media should only entertain, but an overwhelming amount of research shows that stereotypes negatively influence public perception of mental illness. Unfortunately, it is no longer “entertainment” when people’s real lives become affected by the media’s transmission of false stereotypes.
One survey of more than 2,000 English and American citizens show that people categorize others with mental illness as one of the following three people: “people with mental illness are homicidal maniacs who need to be feared; they have childlike perceptions of the world that should be marveled; or they are responsible for their illness because they have weak character” (Corrigan 17). Furthermore, the same study showed that people with mental illness are less likely to be offered the same opportunities as others in regards to employment and satisfactory housing and health care (Corrigan 16). Other studies show that the majority of the public (close to 60%) express an unwillingness to socialize or work with someone who has schizophrenia while 69% express an unwillingness to have a person with schizophrenia marry into their family (Pescosolido 1323). Clearly, there are many people in society who believe mental illness stereotypes and this consequently affects the way the public interacts and regards those with mental illness. Negative stereotypes are no longer just a part of movies and TV shows—they are spreading into the real world and are directly affecting the quality of life a person with mental illness can have. Whether it be that the media is responsible for educating the public or not, there is no valid reason to continue portraying mental illness stereotypes in movies or TV shows. Not only is it immoral and cliché, but it is also unnecessary considering the fact that shows, like Maniac, are still interesting and successful without using them.
Mental illness is a serious issue that is widely misrepresented in the media, especially in films and television shows. Yet, movies and programs insist on treating mental illness as a gimmick through the use of negative stereotypes. This not only hurts people with mental illness by adding shame to an issue that is already difficult for them to handle, but it also suggests to viewers that mental illness is dangerous, unmanageable and overall abnormal. That being said, it is crucial—especially in a social climate that polarizes individuals who are considered “different”—that movies and TV shows learn from shows like Maniac. Mental illness knows no race, gender, or age and it is too common and too neglected to be a target for stigma. Movies and television shows must adapt to a new era where negative depictions of mental illness are no longer seen as entertainment, but promoters of fear in a world where there is no shortage. Maniac might be an anomaly for now, but perhaps over time, more shows will follow in its footsteps and portray mental illness in a realistic way. Only then, will we grow as a society, by actively and consciously making the decision to stop a harmful trend that should have never begun in the first place.
Works Cited
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Fukunaga, Cary J, creator. Maniac. Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, 2018. Netflix/ https://www.netflix.com/title/80124522. Accessed 5 December 2018.
Hoebeke, Veronique. “An Open Letter to M. Night Shyamalan.” Resources To Recover, 28 Feb. 2017, www.rtor.org/2015/10/22/the-visit/. Accessed 23 November 2018.
Lee, Rainie. “61% Of Young Adults in U.S. Watch Mainly Streaming TV.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 13 Sept. 2017, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/13/about-6-in-10-young-adults-in-u-s-primarily -use-online-streaming-to-watch-tv/. Accessed 30 November 2018.
“Maniac: Miniseries (2018).” Edited by Top Critics et al., Rotten Tomatoes, 21 Sept.2018, www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/maniac/s01/. Accessed 30 November 2018.
Pescosolido, Bernice A. “‘A Disease Like Any Other’? A Decade of Change in Public Reactions to Schizophrenia, Depression, and Alcohol Dependence.” Psychiatry Online, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 1 Nov. 2010, ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09121743. Accessed 9 December 2018
Rueve, Marie E and Randon S Welton. “Violence and mental illness” Psychiatry (Edgmont (Pa. : Township)) vol. 5,5 (2008): 34-48. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686644/. Accessed 15 December 2018.
Stuart, Heather. “Media portrayal of mental illness and its treatments: what effect does it have on people with mental illness?” CNS Drugs, vol. 20, no. 2, 2006, pp. 99-106. EBSCOhost, http://ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19748956&site=ehost-live. Accessed 5 November 2018.
Tartakovsky, Margarita. “The Media and Mental Illness: The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous.” Psych Central, 17 July 2016, psychcentral.com/lib/the-media-and-mental-illness-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ridiculous/. Accessed 9 December 2018.
“The Visit: Synopsis.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt3567288/plotsummary#synopsis. Accessed 7 December 2018.
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