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Heath Ledger as The Joker
Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning role as The Joker in the latest
Batman blockbuster has been criticised for promoting a misleading
and prejudiced view of schizophrenics.
A report by a British academic for two British charities says
Hollywood films often show characters with schizophrenia or other
mental illnesses as either stupid or evil.
Peter Byrne, a consultant psychiatrist at Newham University
Hospital in London, writes that Ledger's role in the 2008 Batman
film The Dark Knight was a low point in depicting mental
illness.
The violence and humour shown in the movie were based almost
entirely on a misunderstanding of schizophrenia, he said.
"Batman describes the Joker as a schizophrenic clown, and when the
film's second hero Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face and embraces evil,
the familiar stereotype of schizophrenia is activated," Dr Byrne
said.
"The incorrect stereotype in both cases - to a lesser and greater
extent - is that schizophrenics have multiple-personality disorder
and that the second personality is always evil.
"This is omnipresent in cinema misrepresentations - the psycho
killer is immortal and sadistic, motivated by madness."
