While my research focuses on polypharmacy and the agency and identity taken and formed among those with a polypharmaceutical treatment regime for their mental illness, it asks for a consideration of the public image of the mentally ill as subjective identity is influenced by discrete processes and formations public media is imbued with. Ads for anti-depressants and other psychopharmaceuticals say so much about our dominant culture's relationship with mental health issues and encounters that often they seem like ads for the malady of the masses.
Fortunately for me, Jonathan Metzl, Director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt, just visited the UW to speak to multiple departments about his book, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. For his research, he had the pleasure of meandering over pharmaceutical adverts in medical journals from the last half a century while examining the image the schizophrenic black man had set upon society, or rather the image that was set upon him, and the consequences spurred through this image from the pharmaceutical industry. As much as I love pharmaceutical ads (and this coming from a girl who is petitioning for a "Best of Pharmaceutical Ad Parodies" from Saturday Night Live), the ads targeted at black, supposedly schizophrenic men put me on an edge someone who had just been jousted epistemologically and lost would be on. Like the tongue I have to bite when pharmaceutical ads come on (so as to not overwhelm those I am watching TV with), I had to keep my reactions lecture appropriate lest I launch into a diatribe on just what these ads do to those with severe mental illness; it is unjust to say the least.
Metzl went on to reference the staging of women in anti-depressant ads and the gender roles overtly depicted as what depression leaves unfulfilled and how said anti-depressant can help women to regain their roles as soccer moms, amorous wives or working professionals. Though based in reality, these ads threaten to crystallize these roles as necessary to be a true American woman.
I found two ads I wanted to address for their fairly blatant stereotypes of what is considered "good" and "normal". These of course are up to the interpretation of the reader but I think we all have a grasp on what is suggested as good and normal.
This first one speaks for itself. A woman normally would do the grocery shopping for the family and this is considered to be a "good" thing, although carrying a bag that full reminds me of what a crazy person would do. To clarify, Mellaril is an anti-psychotic usually used for those with schizophrenia. It has many serious side effects that keep it from being a first line of treatment now a days. Ironically, it causes a number of effects that can erode the gender of both men and women, making it undesirable. Some of these include weight gain, disruptions in menstrual cycles and decreased "sexual ability" in men. I have a feeling this last one applies to women as well but we are generally not thought to have "ability" in that sense anyways.
This second one is fun. Though we all are fond of the Charlie Brown tree on the left, the tree on the right is celebrated during the holidays and has become a venue for robust competitiveness.
Prozac, the active ingredient of which, is given to farmed chickens now so why not trees? They certainly have roles to fulfill as well.
These ads are so fun and truly are worth a thousand words. I will post more when I find them and share my thoughts!
Reference
Metzl, Jonathan.The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease.
Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2010.
also enjoyed,
Metzl, Jonathan. Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
