A recent report in the UK (here) looks at the treatment of mental health in TV and media.

Not surprisingly, the findings reveal what we might expect – that most depictions of people with mental illness promote fear and danger. Such views are easy options for plotlines and reinforce the misunderstandings and stigma associated with ‘madness’. They create barriers to communication and acceptance.

However, it’s not all bad. The same report notes the progress that has been made in recent years. A few decades ago, homosexuality was treated with ridicule, stigma and fear. These days most of those elements have disappeared from the public perception of gay people – apart from certain pockets, often tragically found in churches.

The same transition needs to happen with mental illness. A lot of the fear which comes from both homosexuality and mental illness is driven by the recognition by so-called ‘normal’ people that they have elements of gayness and madness in their psyches. To suppress such elements, they try to put distance between themselves and the source of their fear. The most crazy thing I know of is people who act as if mental illness is somehow contagious!

The Insatiable Moon is a story that seeks to take people into the world of those who are shut out in society, and introduce audiences to the essential humanity of a community which appears from a distance to be very strange. We value the support of organisations which work in the area of mental health, and wish them well in the ongoing quest for the simple dignity of humanisation.

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