Month: September 2014

Next to Normal: a beautiful play about mental illness

For the longest time mental illness was considered a taboo, in many cultures it is something that is not discussed or accepted, leaving the people that are most in need of support and compassion to be alone and ashamed of their condition. Traditionally the media, including news, films, plays, and books have portrayed people with mental illness as villains, adding to the already existing stigma. And at a time when we are just starting to understand where some mental disorders come from and how we might be able to treat or attenuate them, a production like “Next to Normal” serves as a wonderful tool for giving us the insight into one of the most misunderstood diagnoses – Bipolar Disorder.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

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Aura – the superhero with mental illness and migraines

In the past mental illness was largely misrepresented in the media, especially in the movies and comic book industry, where the villains were usually ones with mental illness. We know that someone with a history of mental (or physical illness) can be a superhero too and I’m glad that more films, TV shows, and comic books are now starting to demonstrate this point. In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark appears to have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and while he is struggling, he is able to do what’s necessary to protect others. Similarly, in Gail Simone’s version of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon struggles with PTSD and her paraplegia due to the fact that Joker brutally shot her in The Killing Joke. And now there is a new hero with mental illness, Aura.

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“Madness” at the Movies this Month

By: Harpreet Malla, M.A.

Typically when I see that mental health is featured in film, I have mixed reactions. On one hand, the more mental illness and its existence is talked about or addressed, the better. Stigma, or the negative perceptions and misconceptions we have, are primarily broken down by contact with the thing about which we know so little. On the other hand, when portrayals of the mentally ill are poorly done, they can feed into our existing stereotypes and imbue people with fear or disgust rather than compassion. I can think of many films in which an actress has had a near-melodramatic meltdown in an Oscar bid amid characters that are portrayed unidimensionally as either the antagonists who “elicit” the mental illness or are the supportive, silent sufferer types. This month, however, I was delighted to see not one but two excellent films featuring characters dealing with mental illnesses.

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Fear is our Superpower: Psychology of “Listen” Episode of Doctor Who

“What’s that in the mirror?
Or the corner of your eye?
What’s that footstep following, but never passing by?
Perhaps they’re all just waiting, perhaps when we’re all dead
Out they’ll come
A slithering from underneath the bed?”

WARNING: spoilers!

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Psychology behind The Iron Druid Chronicles

I had the honor of interviewing Kevin Hearne, the New York Times best-selling author of The Iron Druid Chronicles, exactly 1 year ago and yet I did not have the courage to post this until now. Since then, his new book came out, he’s had many more exciting news and events to report but I simply couldn’t post this. I couldn’t figure out why until very recently when I started doing some soul searching and digging into the study of vulnerability. Suddenly it all made sense, it clicked like a seatbelt, creating a lightbulb eureka-like sensation in my brain.

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