I watched ‘Black Swan’ recently, and the film left me with mixed emotions. I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and going over certain parts of the film over and over again. The movie stays with you for a long time, if you allow it to affect you that way.
But this post is not a review of the movie. I want to go back to something a friend said while we discussed the struggle of Natalie Portman’s character Nina Sayers as a perfectionist, who is committed to her work so much, and the kind of breakdown she experiences. And then my friend said, ‘but she complains so much, she’s crazy, yes but I wanted her to just get over with it’. I protested, loudly exclaiming that her illness was real, and the possibilities were very much that she herself does not realize that she is unwell. I don’t think my friend was very convinced, and maybe I did not do a very good job of explaining. Curiously enough, I felt emotionally very detached from the movie in the cinema hall, but felt a need to aggressively defend the character’s nature a week later. Something similar happened with several members of a book club in Chennai, who thought that the protagonist of Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’ whines her way through the book, because hey, she does have problems but so does everyone else in life. Both the film and the book have a similar theme in the progressive deterioration and self-destruction of the protagonists as they grapple with their own and those of others’ crippling expectations and circumstances. Whether we choose to focus on the psychological issues in both the instances is irrelevant here, but what bothers me is this tendency in people to shrug off serious mental health issues as something “to get over with”. Almost as if there were an internal switch, and you can switch it on or off at will. Interestingly, while mental illness is still treated like a dirty secret in our times, there’s a certain morbid romanticism of the same in literary and cinematic portrayals. Images of the creative genius teetering over the edges of sanity in pursuit of their art is especially very tempting, with a certain kind of an ecstasy that we find in both the recovery or the destruction of such genius. But that is the artist genius. And then there is the everydayness of mental illnesses. There is very little that is glamorous about mental illness. Any care-giver, social worker, or even a keen observer will tell you that. The onset of mental health issues may be triggered for a variety of reasons, but the causes cannot often easily be diagnosed and they tend to be deep rooted, and certainly not for the lack of effort on part of the person in trying to get better. The illness does not make it any easier, with people suffering from mental illness sometimes exhibiting signs of aggression, being moody, uncooperative or not reacting to the outside environment at all. Someone who shrugs off mental health issues believes at some level: - the person concerned is not making enough effort, or does it on purpose - it is not a big deal, stress happens to everyone. - in their own immunity from the illness. It always happen to ‘those’ people. If we are looking at gathering greater insight into the cultural standing of mental health issues, then I’m assuming this mindset is one of the first things to start working with. By FISH <[email protected]> via http://www.diversityxchange.org/?m=201103 *DiversityXchange is my small attempt to understand and chronicle my volunteering and learning experiences in the mental health sector. I am neither a trained social worker, nor a medical professional so everything in this blog should be treated as nothing but personal opinions and insights. Through this blog, I hope to primarily focus on: - gender and mental health - the role of stigma - representation of mental health issues in popular culture and literature - rehabilitation approaches The narrative will be free-flowing and informal, without any medical or academic jargon because really, all I’m trying to do is to create a repository of accessible stories and ‘lived-in’ experiences. India is my primary area of concern, since I live and work here but I’m also interested in mental health perspectives from across the world. I’ll try to have practitioners and activists write in here from time to time for a diversity of opinions. You can write to me at [email protected]* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
