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The Good and the Bad of Mental Health Perception


Payal Khatore

The Good Place is known for being a philosophy-based television show that engages with several theories and thinkers in the field. The basic premise of the show is that in the afterlife, there is a “good place” and a “bad place” and if one earns enough points by doing “good” deeds in their life then they get into the former. However, the show makes it a point to highlight the flaws in this system including the fact that it does not account for several factors influencing people’s deeds, including their mental health. This factor stems from the particular example of Chidi Anagonye who is a main character in the show. 

Chidi is a professor of moral philosophy and ethics and he applies these principles to his life. It becomes difficult to think of reasons why Chidi would not make it to the good place given that his moral compass urges him to act ethically. However, since it is revealed that (spoiler alert) he along with the others were actually in the bad place all along, the major question that emerged was why Chidi, in particular, did not get into the good place. Apparently, throughout his life, his moral code had left him with a decision making problem. The reason he did not make it was because his anxiety about decision making made everyone around him miserable.

This raises questions about mental illness and responsibility. To what extent does one need to take responsibility for one’s mental illness and to what extent can they be blamed for their actions? Taking Chidi’s example in particular, we see that he is a well functioning individual in most aspects of his life. He has a stable job, relationships that are for the most part healthy and an awareness of his own issues. His indecisiveness due to the moral code causes him to become breathless, panic, sweat, and have stomachaches whenever faced with even the most trivial of choices. This in turn leads to his death and even leads to him being unable to get into the good place when given another chance because he could not pick between two hats. But what must be noted in this case is that his rigidity and indecisiveness are not in his control and he takes responsibility for his indecisiveness. He actively attempts to put himself in situations that would prove that he is capable of being a well-functioning individual but his anxiety gets the better of him every time. Even though we hear him voicing out his frustration about his own inability to make decisions and even shouting at himself for the same, we also see him being physically and mentally incapable of making a choice. While this does get frustrating to watch, Chidi is still a beloved character and has been portrayed as a well-rounded individual who has more to him than his mental health issues. Despite this, him ending up in the bad place could perhaps be leading to a larger point about the perception of mental health issues.

The trend of demonising mental health issues has been actively followed in movies and television shows and this trend is a reflection of how people with these issues are seen in real life. Having a mental health issue does not mean that it becomes an identifying factor of one’s personality and in a way, The Good Place has succeeded in delivering this message.  By making us look at the multiple positive aspects of his personality under the pretext of belonging in the good place, they managed to make Chidi’s anxiety a part of his personality that he struggles with but, that does not define him. The fact that Chidi is a beloved character, even after being put in the bad place because of his indecisiveness, shows that there is a need to change our perspective towards mental health issues. This change is possible and necessary in order to help ourselves and others around us cope and even flourish in their lives, rather than just being victimised on account of their mental health. 

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