Slide 1

Michele Roberts - "I think writers have always been interested in the workings of the
mind. To some extent any decent writer is going to look at the inner self.
"It is just that 100 years ago we did not have terms such as mental health problems.
Instead, writers explored sadness and grief and how humans deal with them."

Long

Slide 2

History
ancient Greek works, people are driven to madness by circumstances or the gods
Bible possession, demons, sins and guilt
Arthurian legend Lancelot tricked into affair, banished, goes mad and wanders
wilderness for two years before being cured when seeing the Holy Grail
Thomas Hoccleve - a period of "wylde infirmitee" - claims he temporarily lost his
"wit" and "memorie" - the earliest autobiographical description of mental illness
in English 13681426
As well as modern works we more commonly think about

Mental health, not illness

Many different definitions
OED A persons condition with regard to their psychological and emotional
well-being
Many different conditions
1 in 4 people will be affected in their lifetime
Mental health spectrum
Because its such an abstract subject, but one that closely affects many people,
it exists in all literature, as its impossible to write about humans without writing
about their emotions and their thoughts. Whether intentionally or not, authors all
present mental health, positively or negatively, in their works, some more
obvious than others for the sake of simplicity, well focus on literature with an
explicit interest in mental health.

Slide 3
Most common in todays society. An issue we see in all media forms music, film, social
networking sites where mental illnesses are idolised and dangerous behaviours like
self-harm and self-medication are encouraged.
Not a negative portrayal but it has negative effects.

POBAWF (1999) Charlie - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, social anxiety, depression
quote replicated thousands of time with very negatives images etc there are
reports of accidents occurring because of the tunnel scene

13 reasons why (2007) Hannah commits suicide through clays eyes she is
beautiful, placed on a pedestal
she had reasonably poor reasons for committing suicide, guy kissed her
told 2nd base, best ass list, girl jealous of her, problems we all face but not
a common solution
doesnt ask for help
Emphasis on her finding peace NOT A SOLUTION
Slide 4
Romantic language
Promoting the idea of self-harm being beautiful
Growing problem - 400 per 100,000 population - highest in Europe
If you look accusing direct address
Shrugs casual belittles do they actually know?

Slide 5
Common phrase the mad old lady etc reduces mental illness to being a personality trait,
defines the individual rather than being separate from their character

Great Expectations (1860)

Dickens places her as an obstacle on Pips way to happiness
Gives a motivation for these actions
Ajax - Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BC
Tragic hero
honour bound
Upset because magic armour given to another warrior so insulted her wants to
go kill some people Athena intervenes and clouds his mind, goes and kills some
sheep instead diminished his honour would rather kill himself then live with
the consequences falls on his sword

Slide 6
"Characters in prime time television portrayed as having a mental illness are depicted as the
most dangerous of all demographic groups: 60 percent were shown to be involved in crime or
violence" (Mental Health American, 1999).
Studies have found that dangerousness/crime is the most common theme of stories on
mental illness, said Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D., co-director of the Center for Mental Health
and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry.
Over a third of the public think people with a mental health problem are likely to be
violent

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

The most damaging book to the understanding of mental health
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane - "It really made
people misunderstand the whole issue, and still does today," she said. "The idea
that some can deliberately change their personality like that, has made people
think they are to blame. It has been very damaging.
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
wall street banker goes on violent killing spree
Real or imaginary?

61% of Americans believe that people with schizophrenia have violent

tendencies STIGMA

Shining (1997) Danny, the kid, schizophrenia, Jack, the father, alcoholism,
psychopathy
Rest of presentation were going to encounter other displays of violence linked to
MI

Slide 7
For both the plot twist depends on the presence of mental illness

Entangled (2011) - 17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and
paper - and no clue how she got there. She writes out her story. There cut enough to be
hospitalised, coma
Fight Club (1996)
Here, mental illness exists as a tool to progress the story.
the plot is moved on by the illness not the illness being moved on by the plot
Reduces it

Slide 8
Much criticism over these portrayals, not authentic
Some novels challenge the attitudes which are perpetuated by the novels

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1962)

Who is mad? The nurse is sane yet a psychopath McMurphy, crazy or
scamming?
Shock shop protest against treatments
Ugly side of mental illness incontinence, vegetables
range of illnesses

Gender men are 3 times more likely to die from suicide

3D characters not mad because theyre mad reasons and backgrounds

The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Women locked in upstairs room by husband following temporary nervous
depression
Believes a woman is trapped in the wallpaper and tries to free her
Protest against woman seen as weak men know whats best
Stems from her own experiences live as domestic a life as possible
Was regarded primarily as a supernatural tale of horror and insanity in the
tradition of Edgar Allan Poe

Slide 9
30

Plath suffered from depression, and in 1963 she committed suicide, aged

Slide 10

Sometimes, in life, there isnt a happy ending

Suicide remains the most common cause of death in men under the age of 35
Every 40 seconds someone takes their life

Filth (1998)
Detective Robertson wife left him drinks, drugs, commits crimes
Addiction and bipolar, past child abuse
first-person, stream-of-consciousness
Imaginary tape worm liking mental illness to physical one pervasive and allknowing, reveals his background
Welsh lets him sink so low he is not resuscitable
Macbeth (written 1606)
Hallucinations & delusions Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to
sight, or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the
heat-oppressed brain? Banquos ghost 2nd visit to the witches
Lady Ms suicide several symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder: hyper
arousal, recurring nightmares, depression and avoidance. One definition of hyper
arousal is having a difficult time falling or staying asleep
will these hands neer be clean
- Stemming from guilt or already mentally unstable enough to murder Duncan?
Called a tragedy for a reason

ISSUE- should we justify unhappy endings as realistic portrayals, or does this

spread a damaging and negative message that recovery is non-existent?

Slide 11
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, "DEJECTION: AN ODE" (1802)
And he's so depressed that the beautiful trees, the sky, and the stars aren't moving him
enough. This is the worst fate for a Romantic: to look at nature and still be unmoved.
The fact that Coleridge is writing an ode (a praise poem) to dejection just emphasizes
how much these guys value emotion. Even bad emotions, like dejection, are worthy of
praise.
no relief & I see, not feel, how beautiful they are!
Slide 12
Not just the beautiful popular disorders

Curious Incident (2003)

Haddon wrote on his blog that "Curious Incident is not a book about
asperger's....if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider,
about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not
specifically about any specific disorder
Little research I gave him kind of nine or 10 rules that he would live his life by,
and then I didn't read any more about Asperger's because I think there is no
typical person who has Asperger's syndrome, and they're as large and diverse a
group of people as any other group in society.
Casual Vacancy (2012)
Background characters OCD, self-harm, child abuse, addiction and others
Presented as simply part of their characters
Telegraph One marvels at the skill with which Rowling weaves such vivid
characters in and out of each other's lives, rendering them so complex and
viscerally believable that one finds oneself caring for the worst of them.
Should mental illness be the soul focus of a novel, or should it just be absorbed
into the narrative as a fact-of-life?
Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Inferno
Robert Langdon suffers from claustrophobia, as he fell into a well when he was 7
years old

Slide 13

Literature can be a powerful tool for change

Asks

questions encourages understanding

Letter from Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville West, 1926 1941, aged 59
Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival
In October, draws attention to mental health issues
MIND annual literary prize
There has been progress with understanding mental health over the years, no
longer see cruel or misguided treatments
DUAL AUDIENCE
People express themselves in a secure and safe manner
People connect emotionally and exercise empathy