Representation of Psychological Disorders and Diseases on Television: Perception of Audience and People with Mental Health Problems

Ovaj rad se bavi problematikom vezanom uz reprezentaciju psihičkih bolesti i poremećaja u zabavnim medijima. Nastoji istražiti percepciju publike o prikazu psihičkih bolesti i poremećaja u zabavnim medijima s fokusom na depresiju i opsesivno kompulzivni poremećaj te sagledava situaciju iz perspektive oboljelih i odgovara na pitanje kako ta reprezentacija utječe na njih. Pomoću anketnog ispitivanja zapaženo je da je većina ispitane publike pogledala neki od filmova ili serija koji prikazuju depresiju i opsesivno kompulzivni poremećaj. Smatraju da ti mediji iskrivljuju sliku psihičkih bolesti. Unatoč medijskom dodavanju simptoma kako bi bolest prikazali kao zanimljivu, ili pak u slučaju OKP-a, oduzimanju simptoma, publika svakako misli da su depresija i opsesivno kompulzivni poremećaj ozbiljni problemi za oboljele od istih. Intervjuirani oboljeli smatraju da trivijalizacija depresije i OKP-a ima negativan učinak na njih, s time da se depresija istovremeno suočava s medijskom stigmatizacijom koja također negativno utječe na njih. Oboljeli smatraju kako je karakter medijskih likova sa psihičkim bolestima nepotrebno uljepšan kako bi publici bili privlačniji, a to stvara krivu sliku o realnim oboljelima. Cilj ovog istraživanja je ukazati na veliki učinak zabavnih medija i moć koju imaju kod kreiranja stavova o psihičkim bolestima i poremećajima te o ljudima koji pate od istih. Upozoriti na greške koje zabavni mediji rade, a mogu biti potencijalno štetne za oboljele, ali i publiku.This thesis addresses issues related to the representation of mental illness and disorders in entertainment media. It seeks to explore audiences' perceptions of mental illness and disorders in the entertainment media with a focus on depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder and looks at the situation from the perspective of patients and answers the question of how that representation affects them. With the help of a survey, it was noticed that the majority of the interviewed audience watched some of the films or series depicting depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They find that the media distorts the picture of mental illness. Despite the media adding symptoms to portray the disease as interesting, or in the case of OCD, subtracting the symptoms, the audience certainly thinks that depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder are serious problems for patients with the diagnosis. Interviewed patients believe that the trivialization of depression and OCD has a negative effect on them, with depression simultaneously facing media stigmatization, which also negatively affects them. Patients believe that the character of media characters with mental illness is unnecessarily beautified to make the audience more attractive, and this creates a false picture of the real sufferers. The aim of this research is to highlight the great impact of the entertainment media and the power they have in creating attitudes about mental illness and disorders and about people who suffer from them. To warn about the mistakes that the entertainment media makes, which can be potentially harmful to the sick, but also to the audience