Looking back at the early 20th century, pop culture damaged our perception of mental illness by simplifying it as something to be treated with stigma. Movies such as Psycho depict mental illness in a simplified manner in which, according to Oliver Lunn of British Vogue, “poor mental health and violence invariably go hand in hand” (Lunn, Vogue). To be more specific, Psycho witnesses the killer Norman Bates dress as his dead mother and murder innocent civilians because he murdered his mother and lover–and the trauma of the incident forms a personality disorder that drives him to kill. Inaccurate representations of mental illness like this only fueled the stigma surrounding mental illness and created a facade of what these disorders truly were, dumbing down the symptoms and causes.
As the rest of the 20th century played out, some filmmakers were “inspired by European cinema to plumb (measure) the depths of the human condition” (Lunn, Vogue). This was when cracks of progress began to show regarding the depiction of mental illness. Among the examples of films showing a more complicated presentation of mental disorders are Ordinary People and A Woman Under the Influence, which both highlight a specific type of collapse. The former film is about the breakdown of a family after the tragic passing of a loved one, while the latter is about the deterioration of a mother’s mental state.
Mabel, the female lead in A Woman Under the Influence being confronted about her mental state.
However, despite these portrayals, being insane was still associated with evil due to the rise in slasher films, such as Friday the 13th, Halloween, and American Psycho. Each of these films follows a similar trend of our fears—the fears of meeting an end by a psychotic person who’s out of touch with reality. Additionally, this was when the hysterical woman trope was put into play heavily. Here, the female roles are simplified as ‘crazy’ by male filmmakers. Fatal Attraction is an example of that trope since the main character is a married man who refuses to take any responsibility for his affair with another woman, which escalates into the woman he was having an affair with stalking and nearly killing the man’s family.
Despite the poor portrayal of mental illness in the 20th century, we’ve learned several lessons from those depictions, both the good and the bad. Contrasting how the 20th century depicts mental illness to Arcane, it’s clear that there are many differences with only a single similarity. The only main similarity of note is in the movie Ordinary People, which tackles the subject of PTSD and family dynamics. Both season 1 of Arcane and Ordinary People saw families destroyed by death and struggle to heal. Jinx and Conrad, major characters in Arcane and Ordinary People, respectively, each suffered from PTSD as a result of their losses, causing them to dissolve their remaining family ties. Among the differences, there is little focus on those pictured with mental illness in a complex manner, with a large amount of screen time focused on their simplistic villainy, such as in the film franchises Friday the 13th and Halloween. Other portrayals, such as in Fatal Attraction, only show one side, which is usually biased towards the main character in those stories. Another example is in The Shining, a film focused on the character Jack Torrance's steep descent into madness. The film portrays Torrance's disposition to violent outbursts and his final breakdown, in which he hallucinates drinking at a bar and is told to kill his family. However, it still follows the trope of associating craziness with villainy.
Young Jinx (Powder) abandoned after losing her most of her family.
By contrast, Arcane provides a more nuanced perspective on mental illness. Arcane's depictions of mental illness show Jinx's struggles as her past still haunts her. When her sister, Vi, came back into her life, Jinx's mental stability took a steep downturn until she ended up killing her second adoptive father, Silco, and broke down. While the 20th century’s depictions are simplified, the 21st century eventually gave way to more complex representations of mental illness.
References:
Lunn, Oliver. “From ‘bunny Boiler’ Stigmas to Brave Storytelling, a Timeline of Mental Health Narratives in Pop Culture.” British Vogue, 3 Oct. 2020, www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/mental-health-narrative.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow the EGD Collective on social media to get updates on our upcoming events and workshops (Twitter / Instagram / Facebook). We encourage you the community on the EGD Discord server to meet some new friends and gain access to our wide array of services and resources!
Finally, consider joining our membership program! Benefits of registering for our membership tiers include access to student support services, fellowship programs, and more. You can find more information on our website here.
Comments