Media stereotyping of the mental health system

Pages: 171-175
Mahima Sahi and Geeta Bhagat (Department of Psychology, MCM DAV, Chandigarh)

Media plays a crucial role in shaping the attitudes of a society. Newspapers, social networking sites, television, radio and particularly ‘cinema’ are significant in developing our understanding of interpersonal relationships, social interactions, cultural diversity and distribution of gender based roles in the society. Media also helps in educating the masses about both behavioral excesses and deficits prevailing in the society, i.e., cultural/social/psychological anomalies. Since ‘cinema’ is one of the most important audio-visual aids to educate people about issues of critical importance, the current investigation aims to study how ‘Indian cinema’ (Bollywood) plays an essential role in shaping the perception of people towards various psychopathologies. As per the literary review, there has been a considerable change between early and recent cinematography of psychopathology, but there still lies disparity between reel life and real life psychopathology. Therefore, firstly, the paper attempts to provide a baseline understanding of ‘media depiction of the mental health system’ by reviewing existing literature. Secondly, it attempts to classify Hindi movies depicting mental/behavioral anomalies, into 3 broad categories, i.e., Dissociative Disorders, Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders and Disorders usually first diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood or Adolescence. Thirdly, it attempts to draw a parallel between the reel life and real life psychopathological symptoms, causes, treatment approaches taking case examples from various Hindi movies. Lastly, the paper suggests how this disparity between real and reel life depiction of psychopathologies can influence the attitudes of the general population about existing mental health understanding.