"The important point here is that no disadvantaged group ever achieved equality by getting the public to feel sorry for its members. To beat stigma against people with mental health problems, we need parity, not pity."

"Film as a medium should be used to advantage to dispel the stigma associated with psychiatric disorders." (246)

"But it has so much truth, as it shows an unhappy childhood reaching out through the years and smacking down its adult survivor" (Ebert)

"We do not forgive him this crime because of his tragic childhood, but it helps us understand it--even predict it, or something like it" (Ebert)

"There is no sentimentality in "Stevie," no escape, no release. 'The film does not come to a satisfying ending,' writes the critic David Poland. He wanted more of a "lift," and so, I suppose" (Ebert)

""Stevie" seems destined to end the way it does, and is the more courageous and powerful for it. A satisfying ending would have been a lie. Most of us are blessed with happy families. Around us are others, nursing deep hurts and guilts and secrets--punished as children for the crime of being unable to fight back" (Ebert)

"To watch "Stevie" is to wonder if anything could have been done to change the course of this history. James' big-brothering was well-intentioned, and his wife, a social worker, believes in help from outside. But this extended family seems to form a matrix of pain and abuse that goes around and around in each generation, and mercilessly down through time to the next. To be born into the family is to have a good chance of being doomed" (Ebert)

"''Stevie,'' a harrowing documentary portrait of a young man in rural Illinois with a background of child abuse and crime, compellingly argues that the physical and psychic wounds inflicted on children leave irreparable damage and lead to lifelong social dysfunction" (Holden)

"The film profiles its subject in more depth than some may feel is warranted" (Holden)

"Besides being a portrait of a sad, deeply troubled person with little impulse control, the movie, which opens today in New York, immerses you in a rural world of trailers, pickup trucks and Baptist churches, where much of the population relies on government checks" (Holden)

"During his years in group foster homes, we learn, Stevie was raped. One family, however, genuinely cared for him. In the film's most touching scene he is reunited with them, and for a moment you can imagine how his life might have been different had they not moved away and had to give him up" (Holden)

"Because ''Stevie'' has none of the glamour of ''Hoop Dreams,'' with its portrait of gifted teenage athletes struggling for glory, it is not nearly as likable a film; but in its earnest, plodding way it is every bit as deep" (Holden)

"'I Am Sam' is not a bad movie, and its intentions are unimpeachable. But its sentimentality is so relentless and its narrative so predictable that the life is very nearly squeezed out of it" (Scott)

"The function of the disabled in Hollywood tear-jerkers (and also, often, of blacks, the elderly, and occasionally the poor of the third world) is to make the rest of us feel better about ourselves. ''I Am Sam'' feels sufficiently good about itself, certain enough of its sympathy for its title character, to allow itself to make fun of him and his friends. They dress funny. They say silly, charming things. They are lovable, clumsy and odd" (Scott)

"the movie's attempts to use the character for its own manipulative ends" (Scott)

"It would be nice if the script gave Mr. Penn more room to explore the dimensions of Sam's humanity, but Ms. Nelson needs him to be a saint (which is to say, not a human being at all)" (Scott)

"The rest of the movie proceeds according to a similar logic, pushing our emotional buttons and then moving on, confident that we will leave the theater sniffling and smiling" (Scott)

"In "Lars and the Real Girl," you do it with faith in human nature, and with a performance by Ryan Gosling that says things that cannot be said. And you surround him with actors who express the instinctive kindness we show to those we love" (Ebert)

"With a serenity bordering on the surreal, Lars takes her everywhere, even to church. She is as real as anyone in his life can possibly be, at this point in the development of his social abilities" (Ebert)

"The doll provides unconditional love, no criticism, no questions" (Ebert)

"The miracle in the plot is that the people of Lars' community arrive at an unspoken agreement to treat Bianca with the same courtesy that Lars does" (Ebert)

"There are so many ways "Lars and the Real Girl" could have gone wrong that one of the film's fascinations is how adroitly it sidesteps them. Its weapon is absolute sincerity. It is about who Lars is, and how he relates to this substitute for human friendship, and that is all it's about. It has a kind of purity to it" (Ebert)

"and all some situations need is for someone to tell the truth, instead of pussy-footing around embarrassments. Consider, in this film, the neighbor named Mrs. Gruner (Nancy Beatty). She rises to the occasion in a way both tactful and heroic. While Gus is worried about what people will think, Mrs. Gruner (and Karin and Dagmar) are more concerned with what Lars is thinking" (Ebert)

"As we watch this process, we glimpse Lars' inner world, one of hurt but also hidden hope" (Ebert)

"Gosling's work here is a study in control of tone. He isn't too morose, too strange, too opaque, too earnest. The word for his behavior, so strange to the world, is serene. He loves his new friend, treats her courteously and expects everyone else to give her the respect he does" (Ebert)

As a result of both, people with mental illness are robbed of the opportunities that define a quality life: good jobs, safe housing, satisfactory health care, and affiliation with a diverse group of people.

Public stigma is the reaction that the general population has to people with mental illness. Self-stigma is the prejudice which people with mental illness turn against themselves. Both public and self-stigma may be understood in terms of three components: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination

fear and exclusion: persons with severe mental illness should be feared and, therefore, be kept out of most communities;
authoritarianism: persons with severe mental illness are irresponsible, so life decisions should be made by others;
benevolence: persons with severe mental illness are childlike and need to be cared for.

the public seems to disapprove persons with psychiatric disabilities significantly more than persons with related conditions such as physical illness

The behavioral impact (or discrimination) that results from public stigma may take four forms: withholding help, avoidance, coercive treatment, and segregated institutions.

Change strategies for public stigma have been grouped into three approaches: protest, education, and contact

However, research also suggests that, instead of being diminished by the stigma, many persons become righteously angry because of the prejudice that they have experienced (60-62). This kind of reaction empowers people to change their roles in the mental health system, becoming more active participants in their treatment plan and often pushing for improvements in the quality of services

"I knew the comedy was there but what every character was going through was very real. You know, it's mental illness. It's a delusion."

"When asked what characteristics define
film characters with mental illnesses, the top three
answers were violent (39%), weird (35%) and likely to kill
violently (30%)" (Swaminath 245)

"There is prejudice against the
mentally ill, with them being stereotyped as ‘mad’ and
expected to be violent." (Swaminath 245)

"Another view of mental illnesses frequently
found in media portrayals is that
of a childlike state incapable of independence" - Sieff 261

"The report states that characters with mental health problems are being depicted as “more demonic and crueler than at any time in movie history.”" (Swaminath 244)

Mass media (e.g., television news and entertainment programming, films and
newspapers) are a primary source for information about mental illnesses - Sieff 259

"However, although we are watching these men suffer from mental illness, the reality is we also see they are amazing. On some level this connects mental illness to greatness, which is romantic, but incorrect" (Kondo 252)

"the truth is the majority of people living with mental illness are completely ordinary. Understandably though, their stories would not make as riveting a film." (Kondo 252)

"Films need drama and conflict to engage the audience, and
mental illnesses and the mentally ill easily serve this purpose; the more extreme the behavior, the better." (Swaminath 245)

"all in the name of entertainment" (Swaminath 245)

"Still,
these depictions are the exception rather
than the rule. For the most part, positive
messages focus on anxiety and depression,
conditions already considered less serious by the public" (Sieff 261) - on positive images

"Media frames play an important role in these representations, for the media frame organizes and
simplifies information about mental illnesses. The repetitive nature of the frame serves to reinforce the media image." (Sieff)

"This repeated portrayal of the mentally ill and mental illness
with the usual distortions has contributed a lot to the stigma
and burden which the mentally ill and their caretakers have
to bear." (Swaminath 244)