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Peer Advocate David Gonzalez gave a presentation on May 14th at the Rainbow Heights Clubhouse in Brooklyn about the stigmatizing images of the mentally ill in 20th century American cinema. Mr. Gonzalez accentuated his presentation with a video containing snippets of various 20th century horror films and with over a dozen framed movie posters depicting the mentally ill in a very negative light. Some of the movie poster titles were: Mania, Paranoiac, Asylum, The Night Runner, The Crazies, Halloween, The Maniac, and Psycho.

Most of the movies depicted were extremely violent, perpetuating the myth that mental illness and violence go hand in hand. "This is why people like us are shunned by society," said Mr. Gonzalez, a consumer, who described cinema dating as far back as 1909 with Maniac Cook. In this film, a "deranged" cook stuck children in an oven to cook them for dinner.

The 1913 film, D.W. Grifith's The House of Darkness depicts a rampaging "psychotic" attacking innocent bystanders and wandering into homes, wreaking havoc. The 1927 film, The Cat and the Canary, depicts a family trapped in a mansion with an escaped "lunatic" bent on killing.

Mr. Gonzalez's video included films as recent as Twelve Monkeys from the late 1990s with Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis, but for purposes of this article, I felt that the older films, mostly black-and-white, were particularly stigmatizing. Mr. Gonzalez acknowledged that, thankfully, he has not seen a modern movie poster perpetuating the violence myth as unabashedly as had these earlier films.

In 1957, The Night Runner, about a mentally ill man returned to community living after a stay at a mental institution, asked the question: "Why are 'they' at large?" As you can imagine, the man depicted in the film went on a rampage.

The pressbook for this movie offered the following suggestions: "…arrange one or more special screenings to which you should invite law enforcement authorities, hospital officials, psychiatrists, newspaper editors, television and radio commentators, and officers of civic organizations…try to get one or more of them to make a statement for publication that applauds the merit of this picture in dramatizing a really important problem of the day…try to get the editor of some local paper to assign a reporter to do a feature story, showing the percentage of former patients of mental institutions who have been guilty of various crimes following their discharge from these institutions…chances are it will have to include some of the most lurid crimes in your community." What offends Mr. Gonzalez most is that the media attempts to validate these movies as factual depictions of mental illness, such as the May 1980 New York Post headline: Freed Mental Patient Kills Mom.

Sure, sometimes a mentally ill person commits a violent act, but so do people who do not have mental illness. However, when mental illness comes to light, the media blows the violence myth way out of proportion.

The fact is, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, statistically, people with mental illness are more often the victims of crime than its perpetrators and are no more violent than people who do not have mental illness.

One audience member commented, "The 1st Amendment of the Constitution allows the media [to print whatever they want about the mentally ill]." To this, Mr. Gonzalez remarked, "Free speech forbids yelling, 'Fire!' in a crowded theater [and should not permit the media to perpetuate the mental illness and violence myth]."

One observer felt that the presentation should also include positive cinematic portrayals of the mentally ill, such as the Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind and Shine. Mr. Gonzalez agreed, but noted, "For every positive portrayal, there are a hundred other films [depicting negative portrayals]."