Karl Smart September 2000 Mental health campaigners have condemned the latest Jim Carrey movie ahead of its UK release, because of its inaccurate and 'insensitive' portrayal of schizophrenia. Me Myself and Irene stars Jim Carrey who plays a state trooper who suffers schizophrenia and has a multiple personality disorder. Carrey's character, along with his multiple personalities, fall in love with a woman named Irene. Carrey and all his personalities eventually fight each other for her affections. In the storyline and marketing for the film, schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are regularly confused, something which mental health campaigners believe reinforces the layperson's myth that schizophrenia is about having a 'split personality'.
Mind feel that the film reinforces the perception that people with mental illness are violent.
In the US, publicity material for the film includes the tagline 'From Gentle to Mental' - equating mental illness with violent behaviour. The most troubling thing people seem to have about the film, is that it portrays schizophrenia, its symptoms and mental illness in general as a joke. What the US think In the US where the film has already been released, it has stirred an enormous amount of controversy and condemnation by US mental health campaigners. The NMHA suggest that a comedy that similarly took on a role with the protagonist suffering from Cancer or Aids would never be publicly tolerated. Me Myself and Irene goes on general release in the UK on September 22nd.