Navya Kapoor
In the research paper “Stigma, Discrimination, Treatment
Effectiveness, and Policy: Public Views About Drug Addiction and Mental
Illness” (Barry, McGinty, Pescosolido, & Goldman, 2014), differences in the
public attitudes about mental disorders and drug addiction were examined. Public
attitudes for four dimensions, namely stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness,
and policy support were studied through a web-based national survey. Half the people
received questions with reference to mental disorders and the other half
received the same questions with ‘mental illness’ replaced by ‘drug addiction’.
Results indicated that respondents’ attitudes about people with drug addiction
were more negative than people with mental disorders. People’s attitudes about
alcoholism have been found to be equally negative as about drug addiction (Corrigan, Kuwabara, & O'Shaughnessy, 2009).
In this blogpost, I would like
to focus on the role of popular motion pictures in contributing to the negative
attitudes about drug addiction in comparison to other mental disorders. In recent
times, multiple mainstream movies have been made that depict different mental
disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in To The Bone, paranoid schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind, obsessive compulsive disorder in The Aviator, post traumatic stress
disorder and depression in The Perks of
Being a Wallflower, etc. These movies typically have the protagonist as the
one with mental ill health and the theme involves portrayal of the behavioral
symptoms of the disorder, the ways in which it impacts the life of the patient
and their family, kinds of struggles they encounter, and the like. Even though
the portrayal of the disorders may not have been completely accurate in these
movies, they have successfully created awareness regarding the disorders,
initiated a discourse on them, and paved a way for normalizing them.
On the other hand, movies that
present drug addiction or alcoholism have failed to represent them as mental
disorders. Be it Leaving Las Vegas or Half Nelson, time and again in the
movies, the characters who have drug or alcohol dependence are shown using the substances
for pleasure and by choice. The element of helplessness in relation to one’s
substance dependence is missing from these movies, which exhibits constant use
of substance as one’s choice rather than as a result of their dependence on it.
These characters are almost never referred to as patients. Moreover, the importance of rehabilitation centers in
most movies is not emphasized. In Leaving
Las Vegas and Half Nelson, we
find only mentions of a psychiatrist or medication required in the rehabilitation
process. In A Star is Born, Jack (the
protagonist) joins a drug rehabilitation center, yet emphasis from his
substance dependence dissipates due to a focus on his childhood problems, which
is shown as a cause of his substance use. While delineating the cause of
initiation of substance use is clinically important, it comes across as a
reason for his regular substance use in the movie. This misleads the viewers to
believe that he uses substance as an escape mechanism, which might have been
true for his initial use but later his use was being driven by his dependence,
which is a mental disorder classified under DSM V. In most movies depicting
mental disorders other than substance dependence, an emphasis on therapy,
medication, and one’s struggles with their disorders significantly help in
depicting the conditions as mental disorders. For example, set in an
institution for people with eating disorders, To The Bone successfully portrays eating disorder as a mental
disorder, even though the portrayal is not completely accurate. On the other
hand, in the four Hollywood movies that I have watched on addiction, none of
them present the struggles one encounters in their battle with addiction in a
rehabilitation center, if they join one.
Other ways in which movies
propel negative attitudes for addiction are through an enormous emphasis on
maladaptive behaviors that co-occur with substance dependence such as stealing
to pay bills or to purchase more substance, ill-treatment of friends or family,
impulsivity, etc. Even though such behaviors are correlated with substance use
or dependence and their representation is required to provide a complete view
of the disorder, I have a problem with the large extent of focus on these
behaviors in the movies. In contrast, feelings such as guilt, regret, and will
to recover are not highlighted even though they are found in most of the recovering
patients (Meehan, O'Connor, Berry, Weiss, & Acampora,
1996). Further,
major parts of the movies depict the falls and failures of the characters with
addiction, while their achievements are either neglected or scarcely mentioned.
On the other hand, whether the movies depicting other mental disorders are
fictional or inspired from true stories, they generally highlight the
accomplishments of the patients. For instance, in A Beautiful Mind and The
Soloist.
Moreover, movies on alcoholism
and drug addiction often end with a suicide or death caused by the substance,
like in Leaving Las Vegas and A Star is Born. Even though these
incidents are common in addiction patients, many of them recover and lead on
their lives. In contrast, movies on other mental disorders generally end with a
positive regard. For example, the final scene of A Beautiful Mind shows Nash, his wife, and his son leaving the
auditorium after receiving Nobel Prize in Economics and The Perks of Being a Wallflower ends with Charlie, Sam, and Patrick
revisiting the tunnel where Charlie and Sam first kissed and fell in love. The
negative end note in the former movies can be viewed as propelling the
attitudes about treatment effectiveness dimension in the above mentioned paper,
that measured the attitudes about possibility of recovery and effectiveness of
treatments, which were more negative for addiction than other mental disorders.
The lack in portraying
substance dependence as a mental disorder, emphasis on maladaptive behaviors
and failures of addiction patients, and lack of presentation of their achievements
in movies significantly contribute to the dismissive and apathetic attitudes
for them as well as the stigma attached to them. These attitudes and
stigmatization include unwillingness to marry into family or work closely on
job with people with addiction, justification of discrimination in regards to
their employment and housing, and opposition to policies that suggest
equivalent insurance benefits as well as increased government expenditure on
their treatment, housing, and job support (Barry, McGinty, Pescosolido, &
Goldman, 2014). These attitudes are not equally widespread for mental disorders
other than addiction, which might be due to their relatively positive depiction
in movies. Nonetheless, it ought to be imperative for the makers of motion
pictures to ensure that they adopt the much needed positive angle while
producing movies and are cautious in representing substance dependence as a
mental disorder.
References
Barry, C. L., McGinty, E. E., Pescosolido, B. A., & Goldman, H. H.
(2014). Stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy: public
views about drug addiction and mental illness. Psychiatric
Services, 65(10), 1269-1272.
Corrigan, P. W., Kuwabara, S. A., & O'Shaughnessy, J. (2009). The
public stigma of mental illness and drug addiction: Findings from a stratified
random sample. Journal of Social Work, 9(2), 139-147.
Meehan, W., O'Connor, L. E., Berry, J. W., Weiss, J., & Acampora, A.
(1996). Guilt, shame, and depression in clients in recovery from
addiction. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 28(2), 125-134.
Comments
Post a Comment