Movies and TV Shows That Get Mental Illness Right and Some That Get It Wrong

We’ve all seen screen portrayals of people with mental illnesses and we’ve all seen ones that miss the mark pretty badly. Someone has a vague sense of “crazy” about them so they turn into an evil sadist. A motel manager in the rather broadly titled film “Psycho” dresses up as his dead mother and murders a guest in the shower. Or someone just hamming through an over the top performance as a person with multiple personalities.

In this episode, we blow the whistle on some stuff like that but we also recognize some artists who go the extra mile to create portrayals of mental illness that are truthful and integral to the story. We have two sharp-eyed pop culture watchers with us and some guest commentators from our Preshies group on Facebook.

Listen to FANTI and Pop Culture Happy Hour on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Tre'vell Anderson and Linda Holmes on Twitter @TrevellAnderson and @lindaholmes.

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Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

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John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.

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