Mental Illness in Popular Media : Essays on the Representation of Disorders

Whether in movies, cartoons, commercials, or even fast food marketing, psychology and mental illness remain pervasive in popular culture. In this collection of essays, domestic and international scholars from a range of fields explore representations of mental illness across various mediums of popular culture. Contributors address how forms of psychiatric disorder have been addressed in film, on stage, and in literature, examine how genres of popular culture are utilized to communicate our often confusing and conflicted relationship with the mentally ill, and investigate popular culture's reflection of mental illness around the world. Analyses of sources as disparate as the Batman films, Broadway musicals and Nigerian home movies reveal how definitions of mental illness, mental health, and of psychology itself intersect with discourses on race, gender, law, capitalism, and globalization.