Greg Osipov

PSY 256
Macchia
Schizophrenia in the media

Schizophrenia is a disorder that the media portrays in many of the wrong as well as right

ways. Schizophrenia is a disorder which has delusions, Hallucinations, disorganized thinking,

and abnormal motor behavior. Most of these symptoms take place mentally and in the thought

process of the individual. In the show Whinnie the Pooh there are signs of many disorders but

the main character Christopher Robin shows signs of schizophrenia. His make-believe friends

Pooh and the rest of the group that appear on the show show signs of different disorders. With

Christopher Robin he created a “real” place for him. Called Hundred Acre Wood and created

fictional characters in this place to which he spends time with.Christopher is never seen with

other people in this place.

The article I am using is “Portrayals of Schizophrenia by Entertainment Media: A

Content Analysis of Contemporary Movies” by Patricia R. Owen, Ph.D. the article covers the

symptoms that are predominantly seen by the outside world towards schizophrenia. The article

goes through explaining how movies show the side of schizophrenia that is violent and suicidal.

The biggest part of the people that are portrayed in movies with schizophrenia are psychotic and

violent intentions to everyone. The article goes over the idea of hallucinations and movies show

them as visual which is stated in the article that “auditory hallucinations are far more prevalent

than visual hallucinations” (Owen’s, 2012) that most individuals who have Schizophrenia have

auditory hallucinations instead of visuals that most people think happens. The part that most

people say is that in movies traumatic events such as bad parenting guarantee that you will get

schizophrenia. In movies that were reviewed only one movie showed the correct way to
administer drug therapy which is the main treatment for schizophrenic individuals, a majority of

the movies that were reviewed were not supported by research done on the area of mental

disorders. The big problem with schizophrenia in the media is that none of the movies have had

comprehensive studies done. There is a lot of misinformation about Schizophrenia in movies

because so few movies have actually had a study done on the portrayal of the disorder.

In the two articles about Winnie pooh and friends showed that Christopher robin is

diagnosed with schizophrenia. The reason behind him having this disorder is that he has the

delusion that his stuffed animals come to life when he thinks about it and depending on his mood

shows which friends appear. Christopher robin showed his view of the outside world through his

friends and it shows based on his mood and how he felt about certain topics. The biggest give

away in the show is that pooh and friends cannot be seen by anyone else except for christopher

robin, in the movies about Pooh and friends nobody sees them moving or speaking all they see

are stuffed animals.

With the scholarly article about Schizophrenia it goes to show that the media takes the

approach of saying the this disorder is very violent with severe suicidal intensions. The opposite

is with the two articles about pooh and friends. It shows Christopher Robin as a harmless boy

who has delusions and auditory hallucinations about his stuffed animals. The similarities

between these articles is that Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder to portray since most of

the symptoms of the disorder take place in one's head and not visually. A second similarity is

that both movies and Christopher Robin show signs of visual delusions which is not symptom of

schizophrenia more a symptom of delusions. The differences between these articles is that in the
scholarly article they are saying that schizophrenia is always portrayed as a violent disorder and

Christopher Robin shows no signs of being violent at all, just a boy having make-believe friends

that show depending on his mood.

Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder to portray but with the scholarly article it shows

one side of the disorder and how violently it is portrayed in the media and the exact opposite

with Christopher Robin and Winnie the pooh. With this it shows that there is not a lot of research

of backing put into these shows or movies to portray this disorder the right way or how to treat it

based on the evidence found in the scholarly article.

Douglas, Ona. “Was Christopher Robin Schizophrenia?” Was Christopher Robin

Schizophrenia?, https://moviecultists.com/was-christopher-robin-schizophrenia.

basak, Ambalika. “Psychiatric Diagnoses of Pooh and Friends.” Medium, Medium, 26 Feb.

2022, https://medium.com/@jbspdf/psychiatric-diagnoses-of-pooh-and-friends-

ec812425636a.

Owen, Patricia R., et al. “Portrayals of Schizophrenia by Entertainment Media: A Content

Analysis of Contemporary Movies.” Psychiatric Services, 1 July 2012,

https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.201100371.