Research Catalog

Media madness : public images of mental illness

Title
Media madness : public images of mental illness / Otto F. Wahl.
Author
Wahl, Otto F.
Publication
New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, 1995.

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TextRequest in advance P96.M452 U68 1995Off-site

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Description
xiv, 220 pages : illustrations; 23 cm
Summary
  • From Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Kojak, and Melrose Place, from books, music, cartoons, advertising, and newspapers, we all derive our images of mental illness. These omnipresent media portrayals are at the least insensitive, inaccurate, and unfavorable and at the worst stigmatizing and pernicious. In this important book, Dr. Otto Wahl examines the prevalence, nature, and impact of such depictions, using numerous examples from film, television, and print media.
  • He documents the remarkable frequency of these images and demonstrates how the media has stereotyped the mentally ill through exaggeration, misunderstanding, ridicule, and disrespect. Media Madness also shows the damaging consequences of such stereotypes - stigma, rejection, loss of self-esteem, reluctance to seek, accept, or reveal psychiatric treatment, discrimination, and restriction of opportunity.
  • The forces that shape current images of mental illness are clarified, as are the efforts of organizations and individuals to combat such exploitation.
Subject
Mental illness in mass media > United States
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
0813522129 (acid-free paper)
LCCN
95006402
OCLC
  • 32132684
  • ocm32132684
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries