Paranormal Activity and Mental Disorder
The pop culture hits have played a phenomenal role in setting up the trend where a clear case of mental disorder is represented as something out-worldly.
When we see movies like Bhool Bhulaiya, where a person with a personality disorder is supposedly ‘cured’ with the help of ‘tantric’ methods, or when One of the greatest horror movies of all times, The Shining, here the protagonist Jack Torrance is nothing but a victim of his hallucinations, perhaps schizophrenia.
This further reinforces the belief that your mental illness is nothing but a demonic possession. Not just media but related industries like horror/ haunted houses show mental illness in a highly negative light.
Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania is a former mental asylum that was exposed for neglecting and abusing its patients in the 1960s, 25 years after its closing it reopened as a haunted attraction.
The site which met inhume torture to poor patients is now cash making Halloween gimmick.
This portrayal of mental illness as something demonic is the reason why a lot of people still don’t speak up or seek help when it’s available.
There is no greater disservice done to victims of a psychiatric disorder by the entertainment industry than portraying them as something monstrous or demonic, for the sole purpose of material profit.
