Psychosis and Violence: the media's influence
A guest blog from Lucy Daszkiewicz
Nicola Edgington jailed for
37 years for killing grandmother in street knife attack - Judge brands
schizophrenic Nicola Edgington a 'calculated' killer (London Evening Standard, 4th March, 2013)
Two sisters whose mother was
beheaded by a man with paranoid schizophrenia in a supermarket on Tenerife have
met his family in north Wales. (BBC, May 13 2013)
A man who
set fire to three men, two in a pub garden, has been detained under the Mental
Health Act. (BBC, 15
April, 2013)
Mum ... admitted her four-year-old
daughter’s manslaughter at their Moss Side flat last year after being diagnosed
with schizophrenia. (Manchester
All these headlines appeared in the top 5 articles relating to
schizophrenia. The sad thing in my opinion is that schizophrenia is a serious
condition that affects around 1% of the population (Lieberman, Stroup &
Perkins, 2012). It is characterized by symptoms such as hallucinations,
delusions, and struggle with building social relationships leading to them
becoming socially isolated (Carr & McNulty, 2006). In addition to this
people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia are approximately 13 times more
likely to die by suicide, with the greatest risk being after the recovery from
the first psychotic episode (Lieberman et al, 2012).
Gonza´lez-Torres et
al. (2007) found that people who have schizophrenia face the stigma of being
labelled dangerous in many aspects of their lives and may use social isolation
as a way to defend themselves from this. Hocking (2003) identified that as a
result of stigma people with schizophrenia may struggle with employment and
housing, and a key influence on peoples perception is the media's portrayal. Unfortunately the reporting of schizophrenia is often misleading within the
media and can be used in a metaphorical sense leading people to confuse the
condition with other disorders such as multiple personality disorder (Clement
& Foster, 2008).
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It is important to point out that different media
sources have different effects on peoples perception of mental health. Clement and Foster (2008) found that tabloids and television have the effect of
stigmatising mental ill health more than broadsheet newspapers. In addition
the amount of television that people watch positively correlated with the level
of negativity people felt towards those with mental health problems.
In fact, research has pointed out that 95% of murders are committed by people without
psychiatric problems, and in reality, people who have psychosis are more likely
to hurt themselves than other people (Ferriman, 2000). In addition
there is only a small increase in likelihood that people who are diagnosed with
schizophrenia will commit a violent crime compared to the rest of the population
(Fazel et al., 2009). The variable that appears to make the most difference is
whether the individual has a substance abuse problem (Fazel et al., 2009). Duckworth et al., (2003) suggest that what we need is to educate through the
means of media instead of demonising and misleading people, and that maybe by
using terms such as schizophrenia correctly we can make it more socially
acceptable so that people do not feel stigmatised and reluctant to seek help.
References
BBC News (2013). Leicester arsonist set fire to men in pub garden
(published 15th April 2013). retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-22153117
BBC News (2013). Tenerife
murder victim's daughters meet killer's family (published 13th May 2013).
Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22504026
Clement, S., & Foster, N. (2008). Newspaper reporting on
schizophrenia: a content analysis of five national newspapers at two time
points. Schizophrenia research, 98(1), 178-183.
Duckworth, K., Halpern, J. H., Schutt, R. K., & Gillespie, C. (2003). Use
of schizophrenia as a metaphor in US newspapers. Psychiatric Services, 54(10),
1402-1404.
Fazel, S., Långström, N., Hjern, A., Grann, M., & Lichtenstein,
P. (2009). Schizophrenia, substance abuse, and violent crime. JAMA: the
journal of the American Medical Association, 301(19),
2016-2023. Ferriman, A. (2000). Press: The stigma of schizophrenia. BMJ:
British Medical Journal, 320(7233), 522.
González-Torres, M. A.,
Oraa, R., Arístegui, M., Fernández-Rivas, A., & Guimon, J. (2007). Stigma
and discrimination towards people with schizophrenia and their family
members. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 42(1),
14-23. Hocking, B. (2003). Reducing mental illness stigma and
discrimination-everybody's business. Medical Journal of Australia
