Mental Illness

It is difficult to accurately represent a mental disorder in film as almost every case is different, treated differently and we know different amounts about them. For example, Retrograde Amnesia is used often as a plot device as it occurs when someone forgets their whole past, being used as early as 1940 in 'I Love You Again'. More recent films that feature this mental disorder are: RoboCop -1987, The Addams Family -1991, Bourne Identity -2002, Finding Nemo -2003, Finding Dory -2017.

Social Anxiety Disorder:
- Shrek, 2001
- The King's Speech, 2010
- Nerve, 2012

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder:
- Forrest Gump, 1994
- The Lion King, 1994
- Good Will Hunting, 1997
- The Machinist, 2004
- Me Before You, 2016

Depression:
- The Virgin Suicides, 1999
- Ice Age, 2002
- The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, 2012
- Inside Out, 2015

Schizophrenia:
- Friday The 13th, 1980
- Donnie Darko, 2001
- The Notebook, 2004
- Black Swan, 2010
- Shutter Island, 2010
- Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015

The Joker

Mental illness is usually used in films to develop the character of the villain too give them more depth. It is often used as a scapegoat and is often distorted to the point where it is no longer a realistic representation of the mental disorder. An example of such distortion is in The Dark Knight. The film's violence and humour is rooted in the miscommunication and misunderstanding of schizophrenia, for example when Harvey Dent becomes "Two Face", he embraces evil and conforms to the evil stereotype surrounding the disorder, and Batman describes the Joker as a "schizophrenic clown", reinforcing the negative expectations and stereotypes that are associated with schizophrenia.

Harvey Dent

This myth that people with mental illness has come about due to media and its inaccurate representation of sufferers.  Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D., co-director of the Centre for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry said that “Studies have found that dangerousness/crime is the most common theme of stories on mental illness,” even though, “research suggests that mentally ill people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence.” Mental illness has been misrepresented by films and other media platforms that not only does it damage public perceptions, but can also prevent people from seeking help as they feel that they would be treated differently, that they would be labelled as 'insane' and won't be taken seriously.

Jonathan Nash

Through choosing to explore schizophrenia in our film trailer, we have to be careful to not reinforce the myths that have already been created. By doing thorough research we can find ways of avoiding doing this, by looking into more accurate representations of the disorder, psychiatrist and film critic Dr. Peter Bryne says that "Daniel Craig's portrayal in Some Voices and Russell Crowe's A Beautiful Mind are more realistic portrayals of schizophrenia", so we can use these to form an idea of how to present our protagonist.

Ray

RESEARCH: 
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorders_in_film
- http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/news/mental-health-stereotypes-movies-crueler-ever-new-report-claims
- http://psychcentral.com/lib/medias-damaging-depictions-of-mental-illness/