Mental disorders in art and literature

Mental disorders have often been featured in art and literature.

Books

 * The Hypomanic Edge by John D. Gartner
 * An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
 * Touched with Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison
 * A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nassar
 * One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
 * Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
 * The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
 * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
 * The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
 * Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
 * Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
 * The Green Mile by Stephen King
 * She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
 * I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
 * Effie's Burning by Valerie Windsor
 * ''Englar Alheimsins" by Einar Már Guðmundsson
 * I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
 * ''* Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
 * Sorrows of Werther by Goethe
 * Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
 * Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
 * Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
 * The Outsider by Albert Camus
 * Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
 * Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
 * Knots by R.D. Laing
 * Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
 * Amnesia by Douglas Cooper
 * Howl by Allen Ginsberg
 * Hello, Serotonin by Jon Paul Fiorentino
 * Bloodletting by Victoria Leatham
 * Darkness Visible by William Styron
 * Earth Abides by George Stewart

Plays

 * Hamlet by William Shakespeare
 * A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
 * Macbeth by William Shakespeare
 * King Lear by William Shakespeare
 * Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Stories

 * Ward Number Six by Anton Chekhov (1892)

Music

 * They're Coming to Take Me Away deals with the main singer being brought to mental illness when he loses his dog. The singer believes that the men "in pretty white coats" are coming to take him away, although the singer considers a mental hospital to be a fun place.

Motion Pictures
Many motion pictures portray mental illness in inaccurate ways leading to misunderstanding and heightened stigma. Some movies, however, are lauded for dispelling stereotypes and providing insight into mental illness. In a study by George Gerbner, it was determined that 5 percent of 'normal' television characters are murderers while 20% of 'mentally ill' characters are murderers. 40% of normal characters are violent while 70% of mentally ill characters are violent. Contrary to what is portrayed in films and television, Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D. and his colleagues at Policy Research Associates found that, overall, former mental patients did not have a higher rate of violence than their control group of people who were not formal mental health patients. In both groups, however, substance abuse was linked to a higher rate of violence. (Hockenbury and Hockenbury 2004)

Television
Many popular television shows feature characters with a mental health condition. Often these portrayals are inaccurate and reinforce existing stereotypes, thereby increasing stigma associated with having a mental health condition. Common ways that television shows can generate misunderstanding and fear are by depicting people with these conditions as medically noncompliant, violent, and/or intellectually challenged. However, in recent years certain organizations have begun to advocate for accurate portrayals of mental health conditions in the media, and certain television shows have been applauded by mental health organizations for helping to dispel myths of these conditions...

One show, "Wonderland", went on the air in 2000 and only lasted several episodes. It was largely critically acclaimed, but pressure from mental health advocates and people with mental health conditions who felt that the show perpetuated stereotypes and contributed to the stigma attached to them led to the show's cancellation.

In 2005, the shows Huff, Monk, Scrubs and ER all won Voice Awards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for their positive portrayal of people who manage mental health conditions. Neal Baer, executive producer of ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit also won a lifetime achievement award for his work in incorporating mental health issues into these two shows.