PsychoMedia: Persuasion by Association
Channel: Hannibalized
Date: 2007-10-27

PsychoMedia is a phenomenon peculiar to members of the media who are driven by the need to exploit and sensationalize. By employing psycho genre stereotypes the media cleverly equates depraved and demented movie characters as accurate depictions of "the mentally-ill." These movies are the equivalent of nazi propaganda films, so whenever an article about mental health is reported in the news the media will usually generate an angle linking the story to violence. This, in turn, justifies denying all people labeled "mentally-ill" their most basic constitutional rights. In 1956 a proposal was introduced in Congress to purchase one million acres of land in the Alaskan wilderness to warehouse "the mentally-ill." Repackaged versions of this proposal are currently swirling around Congress. In Nazi Germany the first people to lose their rights before being warehoused and gassed were "the mentally-ill." Is history preparing to repeat itself? Or will Americans be able to stop this disturbing media propaganda before Siberia USA becomes a terrifying reality?

An interesting point to be made here is that in the 1800's the psychiatric field of study known today as psychopathology or sociopathology was then known as moral insanity. What psychiatrists conveniently categorize as a mental illness is in reality a moral illness. But unfortunately, there is no psychiatric solution for moral insanity because psychiatry doesn't operate within the realm of what is right and what is wrong. As the highly esteemed Dr. G. Brock Chisholm, co-founder of the World Federation of Mental Health, blithely stated back in 1945: "the pretense is made that to do away with right and wrong would produce uncivilized people, immorality, lawlessness, and social chaos. The fact is that most psychiatrists and psychologists and other respected people have escaped from moral chains and are able to think freely." (Psychiatry: Journal of Biology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations 9, #1, February 1946).

Vintage publications of media bias regarding the portrayal of "the menatlly-ill":

People Say I'm Crazy (California Network of Mental Health Clients):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FxQJXwEZEw-sqqVWcLpLNKlVeRcAND3V/view?usp=sharing

Media Madness; an interview with Dr. Otto Wahl, professor of psychology at Hartford: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W3DkRuPWskrcGrPDzOED5na2H1SZAH7g/view?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1W3DkRuPWskrcGrPDzOED5na2H1SZAH7g/view?usp=sharing

The Discrimination Times (Issue #1, August 2000, New Zealand):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1srxHbhdl9PpNvOOSbr7BmLjBMixD0xQ0/view?usp=sharing

Consumer/Survivor/Ex-Patient Historical Timeline:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x_COPjElsJ0Gx3TO7ony0Zke8dl40VTq/view?usp=sharing

Dr. Caligari's Psychiatric Drugs (Network Against Psychiatric Assault):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HVs_10hcQhtPYqXKYNmCI_Jbhz4NGvs/view?usp=drive_link

Madness Network News Cover Gallery:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tFLZLEdAti-FJce1ubZG4RzSk59yqAZi/view?usp=drive_link