From Philip Dawdy's blog, FuriousSeasons.com:
"After mulling it over for a day, I've come around to the idea that Oprah, who featured bipolar disorder and several examples of the same on her program on Monday, is out to paint bipolars as inherently violent and dangerous. I've not seen a lot of data on this point. Most of the research on violence and mental illness has been done on schizophrenia and shows a risk that is not particularly elevated above the general population.
But this is Oprah and she gets to do what she wants, data or no data. Why Kay Redfield Jamison, who appeared on the program and should be acutely aware of this issue, didn't peep in protest is beyond me. She appeared to be on the program to lend some medical authenticity to the affair and get a major plug for one of her books, which have been strong sellers for years and have had major media plugs aplenty. Jamison is an odd case--she's a professor of psychiatry, works in private practice as a psychologist, has oodles of money and privilege, and yet I have never heard her speak up on behalf of her brothers and sisters when they are getting kicked around by the media. There literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of positive stories around people with bipolar disorder, and she stands aside and let's the talk show queen get away with painting the rest of us who work very hard on these matters with the problems and bad outcomes of three other people, two of them Hollywood actors and one a convicted murderer.
If Jamison cannot start standing up when she makes her many media appearances, then perhaps it is time for her to stand down.
And, yes, like many readers, I am sick and tired of Hollywood actors being the go-to bipolar examples on shows such as these. They are poor proxies for the reality the rest of us live with. But have no fear: I hear that Sinnead O'Connor is coming out as bipolar on Oprah next week. I'm so happy. The Irish singer and the rest of us have so much in common."
Agree? Disagree? Please comment!
1 comment:
Of course I agree and disagree! As someone who was interviewed for the show and supposedly the last one told I wouldn't be on because they had some major story come through I have some thoughts on the issue. Apparently the story that came through in which they didn't need me was the interview from jail with a woman who killed her six yer old son because of a bipolar episode. At first I was very angry that Oprah was featuring this and again possibly furthering the stigma associated with violence etc. I tuned in to see how they would handle it and interstingly enough after the horrible interview of the woman saying living with it is more punishment than anything she could imagine they brought her friends on to talk about the warning signs and how to help someone. I thought that they focused on helping people more than anything and while it sucked that the example they used was so extreme I was pleased with the information they gave.
Then they interviewed two celebrities who have bipolar disorder. A soap star who hasn't flown for 4 months because he had a panic attack on a plane due to his bipolar disorder and an african-american woman who couldn't have been more dramatic in every single sentence of her response. First of all panic attacks on planes are common. I have them all the time. You can't then just avoid planes altogether as if that will remove you from anxiety you have to work through it, but the soap star's message was positive about treatment. The African-American woman's message was also positive saying you need to do the work and stay on your treatment etc.
As for Kay she came across very personable on the show. She provided factual information and didn't stray from messages that she is clear on. I don't think she condoned a violent view in any way. At the end of the day it's Oprah. The show is going to go for the most dramatic story possible and unfortunately the most dramatic piece possible is murder. While I definitely agree that it perpetuates stigma and shouldn't be used the way it is I don't think the show was as bad as it could have been. It gave information people need beyond the dramatics. I don't know if mental health advocates will ever be 100% happy with the shows anyone does on these disorders.
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