Recent films and TV shows like My Mind & Me with Selena Gomez and Harry and Meghan with Meghan Markle have once again foregrounded mental health. Our goal in the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts is to see mental health normalized. But how will we know when that has occurred?
We assume that film/TV is both a reflection of society and a catalyst for its change, so positive portrayals of characters’ mental health concerns in media are often applauded as a sign that we’re moving in the right direction. But what would happen if we saw more ordinary, unheroic, or even hateful characters with mental health concerns? Should they, too, be celebrated?
The starting point: Among film/TV characters, many mental health conditions (including neurodiversity) have been absent, including depression, OCD, bipolar disorder, autism, and ADHD. We’ve also seen inaccurate portrayals of mental health conditions and characters with mental health conditions be the butt of jokes–and often be associated with violence.
The first phase (and these phases overlap) toward normalizing mental health is for filmmakers to correct negative portrayals and to spotlight stories where mental health is at the center of the plot. To fix the past, filmmakers must feature persons with mental health conditions who are heroes and extraordinary. So, the movies My Mind & Me and Temple Grandin and the series Harry and Meghan and Atypical come to mind.
The second phase is to diversify who is responsible for mental health representations, including those with an insider’s knowledge of the mental health condition. At this stage, we also start accepting that the portrayals may be only partially accurate if they serve the goal of helping us to empathize with mental health conditions. So, in some cases, creative license trumps accuracy. As I’ve noted elsewhere, the “Take Me As I Am, Whoever I am” episode of Amazon’s Modern Love comes to mind.
The third phase is to create movies and television shows in which a character’s mental health condition does not drive the plot. So, a parallel from other spheres may be the movie Fargo, whose protagonist is pregnant, but it’s not her pregnancy that drives the story. Similarly, in Ramy, Steve is a character in a wheelchair, but his disability does not move the plot. Significantly, most characters in this third phase are still necessarily heroic or wholly benevolent as we continue to make up for past misrepresentations.
The final phase is when we have a diversity of representations of mental health conditions, including characters with mental health concerns that are not heroic or benevolent.
I was excited by writer/director Alex Heller’s recent award-winning film, The Year Between. That film features a character with bipolar disorder type 2. The main character is not perfect, not evil, but flawed, funny, caring, edgy, and occasionally just a jerk. How great! But then I read some of the reviews which questioned the edginess of her character and whether that aspect of her personality was associated with her bipolar disorder. I realized we’re not there yet. Still, Heller’s movie is compelling and moving, one of the best portrayals of bipolar disorder I’ve encountered, a film that signals what the future might reveal.
THE BASICS
In this new world, no one will complain when a character with a particular mental health condition is not also a fantastic human being. Most will accept that a mental health condition is just one aspect of a person. That’s not to say these filmmakers won’t be criticized, but it won’t be about the representation of the mental health condition. It will be the same criticisms that all films and TV shows face: are the stories compelling? Unique? Artful? Entertaining? Believable? Thought-provoking? Do the characters engender empathy? Are these movies made ethically?
In this new world, audience members will see these representations as part of a spectrum of possibilities. Characters with mental health conditions will be treated as just people we see on the screen and whom we might encounter in real life. And that’s the point. I can’t wait.
