Wednesday 8 April 2015

Misportrayal Of Schizophrenia in Films



Schizophrenia is a long term mental health condition and is widely misunderstood. There is approximately 220,000 people living with Schizophrenia in the UK.  Many people think that those with Schizophrenia are, and I quote some people, "nuts" or "dangerous" this is most certainly not the case and they do not have split personalities either!  

Today I read a very interesting article on The Guardian's website, it was written by David Crepaz-Keay who is Head of Empowerment and Social Inclusion for Mental Health Foundation..  He spoke about the misportrayal of Schizophrenia in films.

a recent study of more than 40 films released between 1990 and 2010 found that over 80% of main characters with a diagnosis of schizophrenia displayed violent behaviour and nearly a third engaged in homicidal behaviour.


Now I do not believe for one minute that out of the 220,000 any are dangerous and are about to murder the first person they see! This is another reason more needs to be done to raise awareness of mental health conditions, to educate the public.

To read the full article click here and to find out more about Schizophrenia click here

No comments:

Post a Comment