Normalizing Mental Illness and Neurodiversity in Entertainment Media

Malynnda Johnson is an assistant professor of Communication at Indiana State University, USA, and the author of HIV on TV: Popular Culture’s Epidemic. Christopher J. Olson is completing his doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, USA. He is the co-author of Possessed Women, Haunted States: Cultural Tensions in Exorcism Cinema and the co-editor of Making Sense of Cinema: Empirical Studies into Film Spectators and Spectatorship; Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between: Challenging Gender and Sexuality Stereotypes in Children’s Entertainment Media; and Convergent Wrestling: Participatory Culture, Transmedia Storytelling, and Intertextuality in the Squared Circle.

1. Introduction: Why depictions of mental illness matter 2."Remember what Dr. Lopez said": Portrayals of mental health care in Nickelodeon’s The Loud House 3."And I suffer from short-term memory loss": Understanding presentations of mental health in Pixar’s Finding Nemo and Finding Dory through communication theory of identity 4.Family narratives and mental illness in This is Us 5.Cognitive differences in Star Trek: The case and evolution of Reginald Barclay 6.Popular culture and the (mis)representation of Asperger’s: A study on the sitcoms Community and The Big Bang Theory 7.Psychopath, Sociopath, or Autistic: Labeling and framing the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes 8.When Saga Norén meets neurotypicality: A liminal encounter along The Bridge 9.The Girl on the Swing: An analysis of cues and depression in Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice (2005) 10.Depictions of depression and eating disorders in My Mad Fat Diary 11."Portraying real feelings with comedy on top": Postpartum depression storylines and domestic sitcoms 12.Ruby Wax: Comedy, celebrity capital, and (re)presentations of mental illness 13.Post-traumatic stress disorder in the films Taxi Driver and You Were Never Really Here: A comparative progressive approach 14.Bipolar and Shameless: Showtime’s portrayal of living and working with bipolar disorder 15.Wrestling with eating disorders: Transmedia depictions of body issues in WWE’s women’s professional wrestling 16.Conclusion: Destigmatizing mental illness and neurodiversity in entertainment media