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Persuasion-by-Association
"One of the most effective methods of non-rational persuasion is what may be called persuasion-by-association. The propagandist arbitrarily associates his chosen product, candidate or cause with some ideology or with some image of a person or thing... Thus, in a selling campaign female beauty may be arbitrarily associated with anything from a bulldozer to a diuretic; in a political campaign patriotism may be associated with any cause from apartheid to integration, and with any person, from a Mahatma Gandhi to a Senator McCarthy." (Brave New World Revisited, Chapter IX - Subconscious Persuasion)
Consider if you will a child who has been thrust into the locked wards of our city and state institutions. He has been told all of his life that he "suffers" from a "mental illness." Whenever he turns on the TV or listens to the radio all he hears is that "the mentally-ill" are violent and dangerous. Whenever he reads the papers he sees front page headlines like "Get the Violent Crazies Off OUR Streets!" Movies like "Halloween" reassure him that he will forever need to be vigilant of his violent tendencies and must make every effort to subdue his anti-social behavior. He must never forget to take the medications that will save him from himself. Newspapers that demand forced hospitalization and incarceration make him tremble with fear. "How" he wonders, "can I escape this mass hysteria?" This is a sure recipe for disaster and would make the perfect plot for a psycho-horror movie about how people can become what they are constantly told that they are.......
Movies which stigmatize mental health recipients have been standard fare for Hollywood producers dating back to 1913 with D.W. Griffith's silent screen portrayal of mental illness "House of Darkness!" Probably one of the first movie's ever to capture on film the public's perception of "mental illness." As fate would have it, one of the first movies ever filmed about a psychiatrist in 1919, turns out to be one of the first movies ever filmed about an escaped "mental patient", who is none other than the psychiatrist himself, in the movie "When the Clouds Roll By." Another equally stigmatizing, but much more disturbing movie directed by Dwain Esper was released in 1934 called "Maniac!" The video sleeve for this movie categorizes it as an exploitation movie. What is remarkable however is that this movie was actually intended to educate its viewers on the varying diagnoses of mental illness. If it were not so disturbing it would be laughable. An online movie reviewer summarizes the movie as: "one of the early examples of exploitation films, Maniac is much more risque than it's 1934 release date would suppose; what follows is literally a textbook case of demented behavior, with titles to explain the varying psychoses actually included in the film." But perhaps the movie that singlehandedly ingrained CineMania into the mass consciousness of present-day society was "the night HE (Michael Myers) came home!" In fact, the name Michael Myers is probably recognized more than the names Michael Reagan or Michael Kennedy. And in typical fashion, Dr. Sam Loomis, the psychiatrist who pursues Michael Myers in "Halloween" and who has the same name as his predecessor in "Psycho", does little to elucidate on Michael's condition in psychological terms, but resorts instead to the traditonal demon-possessed explanation by declaring that he is "an incarnation of evil!" This tendency to equate evil acts with "mental illness" is a common practice throughout the media. It is an "escape clause" for people who would otherwise be prosecuted by the criminal justice system and it justifies criminalizing "the mentally-ill". There is no longer a distinction between people who are "just plain wicked" and people who struggle with anxiety or depression or have post traumatic stress disorders. The two have been conveniently grouped together for the sake of justifying forced treatment and involuntary commitment. And it's certainly not that evil has gone away or disappeared. Far from it! Evidence of rampant evil saturates the newspapers daily. It's just that nowadays we are much more likely to use convenient "terms of absolution" like "untreated mental illness", "behavioral disorder", or "chemical imbalance". The minute that evil acts are acknowledged for what they are, and the culprits held responsible if they have broken the law rather than coddled because they are so-called mentally-ill, then all those people who truly have a "mental illness" will be free from psychiatric abuse and oppression. That's not to say that some evil people may not genuinely have a so-called "mental illness" - that's to say that evil people don't commit criminal acts because they are "mentally-ill", but because they are wicked! Not vice-versa! There is no medical solution to moral problems. Or in other words: "you can't cure evil... because it's not an illness."
Evil is a term we use when we've reached the limits of human comprehension. At times horrifying and sadistic, we cannot know evil psychologically or scientifically. It is beyond reason and understanding. We can know it, by it's works. We can know it philosophically, historically, and emotionally. Evil is sly and bizarre. Hitler was a vegetarian (didn't approve of killing animals for sustenence). The Reverend Jim Jones preached Jesus and love. John Wayne Gacy used to entertain children as a clown! Countless writers and philosophers have insisted that evil's greatest strength lies in it's ability to convince intellectuals that it doesn't exist. Consider the possibility that modern-day psychiatry is merely a secular form of philosophical theology which seeks to explain the behaviors of man without using such words as, good and evil, or God and the devil, and is therefore compelled to equate unjustified acts of violence with mental illness. These acts cannot be identified as wicked or evil because to do so would imply a belief in God and the devil. In the award-winning film "Silence of the Lambs," Officer Starling is admonished by the murderous psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter who sternly affirms: "Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened! You can't reduce me to a set of influences. You've given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You've got everybody in moral dignity pants, nothing is ever anybody's fault. Look at me Officer Starling. Can you stand to say I'm evil?" The touching belief that no one is evil, is it's obvious conclusion... that no one is good!!! A classic example of how "movies create headlines" is revealed in this New York Post headline:
HOLLYWOOD: SCREAM BLOODY MURDER, AND THE FRONT PAGE HEADLINES: FREED MENTAL PATIENT KILLS MOM (WHERE MOVIES CREATE HEADLINES...)
Scream Bloody Murder (1972): Matthew kills his future father and in the process cuts off his own hand. He becomes a patient at the state mental institution where he is given a hooked-hand. He is freed ten years later, after being "rehabilitated", and this time he kills his mom. Re-released on video in 1999 as "Matthew ~ Mama I'm Home!"
Don't Look in the Basement (1973): The video sleeve for this horror movie reads "take a look at what happens one day when the insane take over the asylum", and in the fury of its rhetoric, the TAC's Sally Satel, in her book "PC, M.D." has a chapter entitled: Inmates Take Over the Asylum!" The promo ad for this movie read: "To avoid fainting keep repeating, it's only a movie... it's only a movie... it's only a movie..."
Devil Times Five (1974): Five children who escape from a state mental institution seek revenge and take refuge in a luxurious winter retreat as they methodically terrorize and kill off it's inhabitants. (Not even children are safe from the hysteria of CineMania).
Halloween (1978): Although it was made on a shoe-string budget, Halloween is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It's main character (whose name has become a household word) is identified not as the product of a materialistic society which has desensitized it's citizens through a constant barrage of graphic violence, but as the victim of a mental illness, equating mental illness as synonomous with violence!
Demented (1980): Sent to a state mental institution following a brutal assault by four men, a "demented" woman embarks on a twisted quest for justice after being released, when she seduces her attackers and gives them all a deadly dose of their own medicine.
Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981): This Halloween take-off attempts to answer questions about Jason's "crazy" mother who went on a killing spree in the original Friday the 13th. In this episode, Jason becomes the new Michael Myers, and the camp leader's girlfriend, who is a psych-major, hopes to stop this "madman" by her insight into his mental state.
Silent Rage (1982): A "deranged" mental patient is killed by the town sheriff after he drops his vial of psycho-tropic medication and goes on a rampage. He is then brought back to life by a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein to continue his mindless onslaught.
Psycho II (1983): In this long-awaited sequel to the movie that started it all, Norman Bates is released after spending twenty-two years in an insane asylum and goes right back to the Bates Motel. Not surprisingly, strange things start to happen as Norman begins to experience hallucinatory encounters with his long-dead mother.
Silent Madness (1984): A psychiatrist pursues a "psychotic mental patient" who is accidentally released after a computer error and returns to the sorority house where he committed his former crimes to continue his penchant for murder and mayhem.
A Nightmare on Elm Street II (1985): Despite what the TLA Film and Video Guide praises as, A Nightmare on Elm Street's "inventive premise of this villain having escaped from his victims' minds rather than from the local insane asylum," we discover the clear link in this series between evil and mental illness when we learn in the follow-up sequel that Freddy is nicknamed the son of 100 maniacs, his mother Amanda Krueger having been repeatedly raped while accidentally locked inside an insane asylum.
Witchfire (1986): After their psychiatrist is killed, patients Lydia, Hattie, and Julietta, escape from a state mental institution and take up residence in an abandoned house. While hiding out in the woods, the fugitive women run into trouble when they meet up with a local hunter whom they decide to kidnap to avoid being captured.
Stage Fright (1987): Standard psycho flick about an escaped "lunatic" killing off the cast of a stage musical who get locked in the theater after dark. The lunatic devises sinister methods of terrorizing and slaughtering his victims as they attempt to escape.
Clown House (1988): Three brothers on their way to the circus encounter a trio of madmen dressed as clowns who have escaped from the local asylum and murdered the circus' real clowns. The brothers finally realize that they are in danger and retreat to their family home as the clowns follow, leading to a terrifying battle for survival.
The Carpenter (1989): Unusual entry into the psycho-genre about a neurotic housewife who moves into an unfinished country home after a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital and the "deranged" handyman who intercedes in her life and becomes her protector.
Hider in the House (1990): After spending ten years in a state mental institution Tom is released and secretly moves into the attic of a family he admires, but his attempts to ingratiate himself with them lead to violence when his anger is aroused.
Prey of the Chameleon (1991): In this made-for-cable television thriller a psychotic woman escapes from a mental hospital and goes on a killing spree that baffles the FBI because she is a mistress of disguises and can take on the identities of her victims.
Stepfather III: Father's Day (1992): The "psycho-dad" has once again escaped from an asylum and moves to a peaceful little town where he gets a job in a nursery caring for the plants. Trouble ensues when he decides that human mulch makes plants grow better.
Ice Cream Man (1995): An "escapee" from a mental institution dispenses death from an ice cream truck and a gang of kids try to stop him. As the movie alternates from the past to the present one wonders who is sicker, the "escapee" or the doctor who treated him?
The Ugly (1997): As a serial killer waits behind the walls of a New Zealand asylum to be found mentally competent to stand trial, a famed psychiatrist learns through her chilling sessions with him that he hears voices urgently telling him to kill and kill again.
The Catcher (1998): Three Strikes You're Dead; After spending seventeen years in the state mental institution Johnny returns to the ballpark where he bludgeoned his father to death and goes on a murderous rampage to fulfill an insane baseball fantasy.
Road Killer (1999): A "schizophrenic" who does not want to be re-hopsitalized or take any more medications abducts four people at gunpoint and takes them on a terrifying journey.
It would be impossible to list all of the movies which directly or indirectly stigmatize mental health recipients. In fact, the AFI (American Film Institute) recently rated the movie "Psycho" as the #1 thriller of the last 100 years, and one of America's own urban legends of an "escaped lunatic" who preys on lovers in lover's lanes was recently made into a movie called "Lover's Lane: You're Screwed!" Even prime-time television has tried to cash in on the psycho movie market bonanza with it's recent release of the now defunct television series "Wonderland!" This show which ABC reluctantly pulled off the air amid massive public outcry from the mental health community, took the word exploitation to new heights. In it's first episode which quietly aired on March 30th (2000), without much fanfare, a "mental patient" stabs a pregnant doctor in the abdomen with a hypodermic needle threatening the life of the unborn child. Sally Satel, an "advocate for the mentally-ill" from the Treatment Advocacy Center, was so delighted by the show that she wrote an editorial for the April 3rd, issue of the New York Times calling Wonderland's violent portrayal of mental illness "one of the best things to happen!" Then on April 4th, she wrote an op-ed for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praising the advent of Wonderland, where she conveniently forgot to mention to it's readers that she is a major supporting advocate of the TAC's campaign for involuntary outpatient commitment and forced treatment. Then reality struck! Less than three weeks after this episode aired, a Dr. Stephen Pack from Montefiore Hospital stabbed his pregnant lover Joy Schepis six times with a hypodermic needle containing an abortion inducing drug (New York Post 4/18/00). Dr. Pack's lawyer reported that his client had been "showing symptoms of depression for several months... and if the facts are accurate, it certainly doesn't appear that anything he did was done with any rational criminal intent." RATIONAL CRIMINAL INTENT??? Does this imply, or presume, that there are unjustified acts of violence which are considered rational? Here is a lawyer who is conveniently preparing a defense for his client by equating an unjustified act of violence with a diagnosis of mental illness (depression)! Was his client one of those viewers influenced by the first episode of Wonderland? And does Ms. Satel still feel that this show was "one of the best things to happen?"
Fortunately, there is an occasional television episode where the stigmatizing effects of exploitation movies are exposed for all to see and where the reality of "CineMania" is revealed, such as in a recent episode of the CBS series "Diagnosis Murder" which aired on Thursday, November 2nd, 2000. In this episode a disheveled, incoherent man is brought into the emergency room of a hospital where the doctor recognizes the man as a former medical student he had taught named George, who is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. George is then framed and arrested for a murder he did not commit. The doctor, however, doubts that George has actually committed the murder and after some investigating soon discovers and confronts the real killer, who then commits suicide. With no evidence to convict the actual killer, who is now dead, George is charged with the murder on the basis of the planted evidence. While in jail, George saves the life of his cellmate, who is suffocating, by summoning a guard and instructing him on how to perform a tracheotomy. Fortunately, by the end of the show, George's name is cleared and he gets the necessary treatment for which he was brought into the emergency room. Unfortunately, shows like these are few and far between and need to be given equal time in order to balance the scales. Both CBS and Viacom Productions ought to be applauded and commended for placing objectivity above exploitation! David@seecinemania.com
RECOMMENDED VIEWING:
Shock Corridor (1963): A news journalist feigns insanity to uncover the facts behind a murder at an insane asylum. While pursuing his investgation the journalist is strait-jacketed and subjected to shock treatment. By the time the murder has been solved the journalist has really "gone off the deep end", while another patient, who was suffering from a mental breakdown, recovers and takes his place in "normal" society.
King of Hearts (1966): A World War I Scottish infantryman enters a deserted French town that has been abandoned by everyone but the "inmates of an insane asylum." French film with English subtitles, this anti-war satire has become a cult classic.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): This gut-wrenching film is a triumph of the human spirit as a feisty rebel enters an insane asylum and inspires his fellow patients to assert themselves... to the chagrin of the administration. Great cast and visionary direction capture the poignant, rebellious feel of Ken Kesey's novel. A must-see film!
Beyond Reason (1977): I "accidentally" came across this powerful psycho-drama while at a video discount store. What caught my attention was the realistic portrayal of the patients in the psychiatric ward, and the thin line that seperates sanity from insanity. Definitely a sleeper that should have received critical acclaim. Strongly recommended!
Frances (1982): Biography of 1930's movie starlet Frances Farmer who wound up in an insane asylum. Although movie director Howard Hawks called her "the best actress I've ever worked with," the Seattle-born feminist was never allowed to reign as a star for snubbing the Hollywood power structure and finally pays a horrifying price for doing so.
Man Facing Southeast (1986): Both an eerie and compelling film about a patient who claims to be an alien, and who does, in fact, seem to possess supernatural powers. Rich in Christian symbolism, this movie leaves the viewer wondering who is really sick, society, or those whom society labels mentally-ill! Spanish with English subtitles.
A Beautiful Mind (2001): One of the best movies I've ever seen!!! It seems that the only people who were upset by this movie were members of the psychiatric profession who were outraged that such a recovery could take place without their intervention. Wrote one psychologist from Virginia: "The plot - in which the patient relapses, then improves after stopping his medications - is just a horrible message." I believe that this statement says a whole lot more about the psychiatric profession then it does about this movie.
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