Television as a tool for behavioural modification, social control and society therapy

I've just skim read a paper on something or other and it's prompted a line of thought which is already being explored.

In the UK Steven Fry's TV programs have significantly shifted the public perception of biplor disorder. his touching documentary The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive shed a small light into the human type. It didn't quite convey the sheer living hell of bipolar but it helpe people to see a value to the human type. I think it may have lead to people wanting to be bipolar which is a significant shift in perceptions to how bipolar was perceived 30 years ago.

His series QI helped redouble the desire to be like Stephen Fry. He is an admired man by the nation. The program Eastenders, a well watched soap opera, also had a story line about bipolar. I assume it was more realistic and portrayed the living hell.

These programs help to shift perceptions. They are ways to accelerate the demedicalisation of psychopathology labels like manic depression. They help redress the imbalance and illness in society such that valuable human types are deemed subhuman using the label of mental illness. As a broad category they are part of the new movement in mental health and healthcare: anti-stigma.

There are still many examples of media which reinforces the stigma. The (great) fil Natural Born Killers is the antihesis of the series Dexter (which I've not really gotten into yet). The two main characters in NBK are total psychos but they were lucky enough to find each other. Sadly their love ended up with many deaths. In the series Dexter the premise is a serial killer who helps hunt down serial killers but I guess that the main character has some sort of admirable quality and there are examples of humanity in the 'evil' type of the psychopath.

In the paper I just read on TV and attitudes to therapist it suggests that careful portrayal of help seeking and of mental health professionals in comedies and dramas may both help and hinder. It may help people be more willing to seek help from therapists and be less self-stigmaitsing and stigmatising, however the danger is the expectations that a therapist has an answer for the client or that therapy is guaranteed to be a pleasant process.

It is fairly well established that television as a medium can be a significant factor in mental illness. The characters - both physically and mentally - are often perfect and beautiful. They are exaggerations of real people but the influence of the close-to-reality representation of modern television electronics mean people are significantly influenced. There is the illness in society caused by advertising too, advertising which often creates desire for products and uses images of perfect people to sell their wares.

Clearly a lot of image-based eating disorders are based upon the problem of the slim models in the media. The rise in plastic surgery is often surgery to make people look like the perfect people they see on TV or in print. Some people eschew the mainstream TV programs but find anti-heroes to want to be instead of the perfect people in mainstream TV.

The negative impact of TV on mental disorder is probably quite high but I fear there is a greater risk from the control of TV to rectify mental disorder. Once control over these images is established this becomes an inorganic process akin to social control. Even if done with the best of intentions the risks are the risks of any good action: that harm will ensue.

How a social control expert can gain competence to make what is truly the right decision when it comes to the control of television is a challenging question. There are so many variables and it feels like there's not a lot of science to offer reliability or predictability. The risks are as much as the risks of The Great Confinement (where, out of compassion, the mad and the fools and others were housed and helped but removed from human view for generations thereby causing a significant illness in society).

It is a significant risk. During the period of the Time to Change antistigma campaign in the UK the number of homicides by persons with a mental health diagnosis shot up significantly in one year. I think it's either year 2 or 3 of the campaign. The risk is a psychopath going on a killing spree and excusing themselves because they're psychopaths...or the risk of people trying to manage bipolar without medication or training. Alternatively it is the risk of people blindly accepting doctors' instructions about handling their condition because the media portayal of doctors is they're omnipotent and omniscient.

I'm sure there are many, many other risks however this practice of controlling the media in the name of mental health and antistigma is already becoming common in the UK. It is often governed by people who don't understand the risks involved nor try to understand the risks...because they believe they're doing a good thing.