In what ways are the depictions of mental illness in Joker problematic? 

In recent years, awareness about more common mental illnesses like anxiety and depression has grown exponentially. Unfortunately, more severe disorders have seen no such growth in recognition. The portrayal of severe mental illnesses in popular media is still inaccurate and stereotypical. The 2019 movie Joker is one of the culprits of spreading this type of misinformation. A common stereotype about individuals with severe mental illnesses is that they are violent. Joker perpetuates this myth, as Arthur, the titular “joker”, grows more violent after stopping his medication. In actuality, people with severe mental illnesses are more susceptible to experiencing violence coming from others than are people in the general population, but they are not averagely more violent themselves. 

Joker is misinformative about the details of mental illnesses in more ways than one. Instead of selecting one psychopathology for the main character to suffer from, the writers of Joker seemed to pick and choose from symptoms that they found interesting and attribute them all to Arthur. Instead of representing symptoms that were plausible to occur together and that would perhaps portray one or two distinct mental illnesses, the movie used various and (seemingly) unrelated symptoms as plot devices.

What implications does Joker have for the real world? 

The effect of misinformation in popular media regarding mental illness has been seen before. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a 1975 film depicting the unethical use of electro-convulsive therapy, has been said to have created undue levels of mistrust around electro-convulsive therapy, which can be very effective as a treatment. Movies, (especially extremely popular and widely viewed ones like Joker) have to be held accountable for their representations of the severely mentally ill if the stigmatization around these disorders is ever to drastically improve. The misrepresentation of mental illness in Joker is misinformative at best and dangerous at worst.