This weekend was the opening weekend for Martin Scorsese’s latest flick Shutter Island - a psycho thriller about a patient gone missing at a psychiatric hospital containing patients that are deemed criminally insane.   I won’t give away the plot, but it’s definitely a must see.  The profiles of the patients there are certainly over-dramatized; however, having been a medical student rotating through a state psychiatric hospital housing “criminally insane” patients, some of the stories are not that far off!  Many of the characters suffer from psychosis and delusional thinking, and much like for the patients, the audience is left guessing what is real and what is delusion.

This brings me to another topic – celebrity profiles of mental illness.   Just recently TMZ reported that Growing Pains star Andrew Koenig’s family opened up about his depression.   According to statistics from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, approximately 5% of the population suffers from a mental illness, and celebrities are not immune.  Recently we’ve heard about the battle Brook Shields fought against her post-partum depression, and just last week the famous designer Alexander McQueen hanged himself after succombing to suicidal thoughts.  Several celebrities have been open about their diagnosis of bipolar disorder, including Axl Rose and Mel Gibson.  There’s a great slide show on organizedwisdom.com that presents several celebrities suffering from mental illness. 

Does this media-driven portrayal of mental illness paint a clear picture?  Maybe.  The fact that celebrities are not ashamed or afraid of opening up about their disease makes it easier for the lay public to be open about it as well.  And publicity leads to better access to treatment for the public and open mindedness helps foster better attitudes about the disease for those who suffer from it.  Does the movie industry do a good job of accurately describing the reality of mental illness?  Sometimes.  But at least it fosters discussion, and a lot of discussion can come from Shutter Island!

Tags: celebrities, movies

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.