6 Mental Illness Myths Hollywood Wants You to Believe
#3.
Having a Mental Illness is a lot Like Being a Superhero
Hollywood, appealing to our innate sense of fairness, has long suggested that for every faculty taken away by mental illness (reason, rationale, bowel control), there is at least one super power left behind as compensation.
For example, he lost his sight but gained the ability to narrowly avoid marrying Jennifer Lopez.
Laboring under the idea that mental institutions and halfway houses across the world are actually the secret headquarters for The Socially Incapable Justice League, movies have given us dysfunctional people that can outwit impossible prisons (Cube); developmentally disabled man-boys that can transform into super-powered aliens (Dreamcatcher); autistic kids who can crack top secret government codes (Mercury Rising); and, of course, autistic men who are awesome at blackjack (Rain Man).
Rain Man is also awesome at juice boxes.
Why It's Bullshit:
There are people called savants that are able to retain vast amounts of information, usually involving numbers but not always, and perform mental feats that most people can only dream of, but only about 10 percent of people with a mental disorder are anything close to what could be called a savant. Savants without a mental handicap are uncommon (probably because there are way more normal people than mentally disabled people), but the point is you don't have to suffer from a mental deficiency or a crippling psychosis to clean up at the blackjack table. And, in fact, that probably makes it way harder.
In real life, autism is a highly variable neurological disorder that impairs social functioning and communication, leaving those that suffer from it struggling to lead a normal, fulfilling life. In the movies, autism means little more than being really good at math, dressing like a nerd and having to put up with Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis (which might be a super power, but there's no conclusive proof). And as far as our research can tell, no mentally handicapped person has ever turned into an alien.
#2.
The Charming and Witty Psychopath
In Hollywood, nobody has more fun than a murdering lunatic. Whether you're the Joker, Hannibal Lecter, the Sheriff of Nottingham or Scar from The Lion King, you're typically the most erudite, charming and interesting person in the room.
"I have the best lines in this movie."
Moviemakers love the idea of a sociopath brutally murdering people one minute and making hilarious observational comments the next, so it comes as no surprise that these characters are often times the most endearing people in the entire damn film. They even went so far as to essentially turn Hannibal into a Batman-like vigilante in Hannibal Rising, fully embracing the fact that every audience was going to root for him anyway.
Really, it's hard to be against someone that ate Ray Liotta's brain.
Then, Showtime took the next logical step and cast a sociopath as the hero in Dexter.
Why It's Bullshit:
First, in movies the terms "psychotic" and "sociopath" are traded more often than genital infections at Flava Flav's house. But psychotic behavior is when someone attacks the mayor because Satan appeared on a box of Crunch Berries and told them to do it. Sociopathic behavior is when someone lies, doesn't feel bad about it and can't understand why anyone else would.
People who suffer from anti-social personality disorder (the closest thing in real life to a Hollywood "sociopath") almost always come from backgrounds where they're barely given enough to eat, let alone a well-rounded cultural education. Generally speaking, they aren't charming, aren't educated, aren't even particularly bright and couldn't come up with a devious scheme to save their boring ass lives. Most of them aren't even violent.
And it's actually pretty hard to rise to the top of your field if you have the typical sociopath's problems relating to other human beings. Yes, even in politics. So while Hannibal Lecter is a world-class sophisticate, a brilliant doctor and the epitome of old world charm and grace, the average real world sociopath is an isolated failure that spends his lunch breaks from Pizza Hut scribbling obscenities on the condom machine in the bathroom at the Shell station.
#1.
"I have amnesia! I just need to get my memories back!"
Hollywood loves itself some good old-fashioned amnesia. Any time your central mystery could be solved with a phone call or two, give your hero amnesia and boom, you've just filled two hours. Hollywood has been using this plot device since 19 freaking 15. At least 10 films in the silent movie era were about people with amnesia, and they haven't let up since.
Back in the day it was the old-fashioned kind of amnesia, as seen in soap operas and numerous wacky comedies. In these cases, a blunt force head trauma erases the main character's memory, and often another skull-crushing blow will set things right again (seen as recently as the Dana Carvey movie Clean Slate which, ironically, you almost certainly don't remember). Amnesia is also a job requirement for high-end assassins (see The Long Kiss Goodnight and the Bourne movies).
There's a cheesy, almost Three Stooges quality to this one so you probably always knew it was bullshit. But even if it's not caused by a bonk on the head or a secret agency wiping your memories, there still has to be some truth to it, right?
Why It's Bullshit:
In reality, it's more like Momento than Bourne.
Pretty much every other film that deals with amnesia picks and chooses what symptoms work best for their plotline from a myriad of actual cases to form a Frankenstein of medical inaccuracy. The causes of the disorder in the real world are strokes, heart attacks and infections, not hits to the head. And the result isn't a brain that hides every memory behind a curtain until the day you find the secret files on a government assassin database that brings it all rushing back.
Oh shit. I'm totally bad ass.
No, real amnesia is much more horrifying. The victims usually can't form new memories, so while their personality is intact and long-term memories are there, they are continually having the reset button punched at random.
Yes, one of the most realistic depictions of amnesia was Dory the fish in Finding Nemo.
"Hey kids, my suffering is scientifically accurate!"
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I get the feeling this article was only half-researched. #2 and #1 are especially glaring.
Reply#1 is not inaccurate. It just doesn't tell the whole story. However, it is completely true that most "Amnesia" sufferers in movies are completely inaccurate. The provided form of Amnesia by the writer is one type.
I know a guy with that kind of amnesia.
#2 is also incorrect. The reason that psychopath and sociopath are interchangeable in film is because they are interchangeable in the psychological community as well; the two terms are equivalent to the more modern Antisocial Personality Disorder and mean the same thing, as hermaphrodite and intersexed mean the same thing. A psychopath is essentially someone who lacks empathy for others. "Glibness and superficial charm" is one of the criteria for sociopathy, on the Bob Hare checklist- meaning that being charming is one of the hallmark characteristics of a sociopath. I'm not sure whether it's correct that a majority of psychopaths were poor, but from what I've read that seems doubtful, as it seems to be at least partially biologically based, meaning it can occur in anyone and is often suggested to be a hallmark of rather successful people. There is much about the diagnosis that is still unknown and much that is rather debatable. A great book on the subject is John Ronsom's "The Psychopath Test".
Reply#4 is incorrect. There is a long, well documented history showing that ECT has been and still can be a harmful procedure with debatable lack of merit that was misused; it was and still can be performed against patient consent. While Hollywood may exaggerate the problems with the procedure, there are real, serious concerns about it. Adverse side effects include memory loss, and in the past included much more severe side effects, sometimes destroying lives, which is why there was a string of lawsuits brought against practitioners in the 70s. Former patients, such as Plath and Hemingway, have criticized the procedure as having been unpleasant. While progress has been made, and the procedure today is drastically different (safer and more effective) it is still debatable. A great scholarly read on the subject is the book "Mad in America". Considering the seriousness of the subject, a bit more research should have been employed here.
ReplyWhen I was 16, my best friend and I were in a car accident. She got a concussion and had amnesia, as a result of a blow to the head, exactly what you've just tried to convince us does not happen. She lost all memory initially, did not recognize any of her family or even her own face in a picture. Most of her memories came back gradually, though there are still many things she doesn't remember. It was terrifying and absolutely nothing like what you've described. I find it interesting that this article pointing out how little research Hollywood does in making these movies is so poorly researched.
ReplyWhat your friend had/has was retrograde and anterograde amnesia while the author only looked at anterograde amnesia. Overall, though, his point remains: Memories do not come flooding back to you after seeing something that reminds you of your past as proven by your friend and many other cases.
This is an ill-informed article, especially concerning sociopathy (psychopathy, which is NOT psychosis, but the old, politically incorrect name for sociopathy) and autism. As others have mentioned, many sociopaths qualify as charming, well-spoken, often above-average intelligent individuals. Lying isn't their only trait, it's also the lack of 'innate' sense of morality and concern for their fellow man. In autism, there is something called Asperger's syndrome, which is often linked with 'genius' abilities, especially in math, as well as the capacity to focus upon one task much more fully than the average person. Also, it's called Memento, not Momento.
ReplyAsperger's is not "often" linked to genius ability - it's once in a rare while, no more than 1 in 100 Asperger's patients. Asperger's itself is usually high-functioning autism, which is a milder form but is hardly some kind of "gift of genius" like you imply. On top of that, Asperger's is barely a couple percent of autism cases - the other 98% are exactly what the author was talking about, and close to half come with other developmental delays like mild retardation. Ask someone who actually HAS Asperger's and they'll tell you it's nothing like the movies - being a human calculator is all well and good, until you realize you can't tell people what you've discovered because of the deficits you have in your other thought processes. In general, what you'll hear is they'd be more than happy to trade the savant aspect to be normal in other respects
In short, quit thinking that just because the internet adopted Hollywood-style Asperger's as a meme, the internet must be right....
But some psychopaths can be charming, eloquent and educated, like Ted Bundy, or witty and suave, like Rodney Alcalá. Those are the most dangerous, because women will fall for them, and next thing you know, they're working on rape prevention committees, and starring in game shows.
Reply'He may be a genius but I wouldn't trust him to sit on the toilet the right way' a quote from QI by Stephen Fry, reminded me of the closenesss of autism and genius in the brain.
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ReplyDisappointing, uniformed and almost entirely rubbish.
ReplyI'm appalled by the number of poorly written, poorly researched articles showing up on cracked these days, purporting to be exposé pieces or whatever. People buy into "myths" that aren't actually myths as much as they buy into any other bullshit, ironically enough in the case of this article that's supposed to be about the bullshit people believe. Sufferers of ASPD are not the closest things to sociopaths; sociopaths are, and they're very real, although perhaps some confusion lies in the interchangeability of the terms "sociopathy" and "psychopathy", as the DSM has yet to establish the specific criteria. Anyhow, while ASPD is broad and regards behavior, psychopathy involves measurable differences in cognition, neurology, and emotional response. Most of these people were born into relatively normal lives, but they were literally born without the hardware necessary to experience empathy. Some of them grow up to be serial killers, but most of them are just charismatic, self-serving selfish jerks who will take advantage of you before you figure it out. I suggest you read "The Mask of Sanity", the foremost treatise on the subject. You're an idiot, Geoff, and I'm disappointed in cracked for delivering your bullshit to stupid people that'll believe it because it's on cracked.
ReplyMaybe read the title of the article again, it wasn't about myths people actually buy into (although there are ertainly alot that do), it was about what Hollywood tells us about mental illnesses.
I was genuinely hoping you'd address DID/MPD in this. I'm a married mother of 5 kids who lived with DID for about 25 years before diagnosis and another 7 before recovery. Contrary to popular belief, it's real, it's a coping tool run amok that many multiples manage to keep hidden until life hands them more s**t than a brain can take, and they are not criminals who can use a diagnosis to escape prosecution or responsibility for their crimes.
ReplyIt's the single most horrifying mental illness related to trauma, rather than biology, but is also one of the few which can be "cured".
*face palm* And before I get further into my rant... Thank you for this article. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and I love your willingness to use humor to educate.
haha. a Cracked mom. Awesome.
"Yes, one of the most realistic depictions of amnesia was Dory the fish in Finding Nemo."
ReplyOr Drew Barrymore's character in '50 First Dates'.
That was the saddest thing I've ever seen. Apparently I don't watch many movies or tv.
"Momento"? Was that deliberate?
ReplyWhile it's true that there's rarely a magic switch to cause an amnesiac's memories to come flooding back, it's entirely inaccurate to say that amnesiacs "usually can't form new memories". There are two main types of amnesia: anterograde amnesia, which means that the victim cannot form new memories, and retrograde amnesia, in which the victim loses a chunk of their old memories but are still able to retain new information. In some cases a person may have both. Also, it is perfectly possible to have amnesia after a head injury - this is the cause of post-traumatic amnesia. All this information is accessible on Wikipedia as well as more reputed sites, so it's not like it would have been hard to research.
ReplyYou just make it sound boring.
I'm just going to point out.... the time period that those movies with the screaming patient being dragged to the ECT room is accurate. In the time period where that was one of the main treatment for the mentally insane, it was a painful experience and the patient had no choice in the matter. So yes, while today's ECT treatment is safe... Hollywood kinda had it right for the movies. Bit of a fail on that one Cracked. =/
ReplyVery true about the time period
I'm also sure in some countries they can still perform ECT without consent, the justification being that you're so mentally ill that you cannot consent/don't have the ability to make rational decisions for yourself. Also from a friend who has had ECT, it hurt afterwards, and they also lost a lot of memories and had blank spots from their past, that never returned.
I'm glad you said that, scoped, because I was going to make the same point. A huge amount of memory loss generally occurs, and the doctors don't always make that clear to patients. It's generally surmised that the loss of memory after ECT was among the reasons Hemingway killed himself. Also, ECT is not given on a regular on-going basis. It's given as a series of treatments with a finite end. There were a lot of mistakes in the article. I wish more care had been taken in doing the research.
It's bad enough when people say "MOmento" (a moment in Spanish) when they mean "MEMento" (a souvenir), which is like all the f*****g time. But now they're spelling that s****y movie wrong, too.
Replys****y movie? Not by a long shot. That you take time to keep track of such linguistic faux pas? Disturbing.
Cracked confused psychotic and psychopaths on this one.
ReplyThis would have been interesting if it had been accurate and logical. I'd point out the mistakes but it would require me to rewrite most of the article and I can't be arsed.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesYou are/were a psychology major I take it? Of all the liberal arts majors to pursue.
What's wrong with being a psych major? I graduated with a degree in psychology and I find it to be very rewarding and interesting. It is something that literally everyone could learn and be enlightened from.
Why all the thumbs down? It's true.
Actually Hollywood psychopaths like the Joker are not wrong. Psychopaths are people who have no empathy and no remorse. So you're wrong on this one Cracked.
ReplySo are you.
This article should be included as a disclaimer on everything Hollywood releases that is about or featuring mental illness.
Reply