The Joker and Mental Health

I finally watched the new Joker movie this week so spoiler alert if you still haven’t seen it.

I believe it is an iconic movie for multiple reasons but I saw a meme that said “someday someone will break you so badly that you will become unbreakable” with the joker smoking a cigarette behind the words. This by itself is a great sentiment. About resolve for yourself and taking hurt and turning it into your strength. But this in no way should be associated with The Joker. Ask yourself if you want someone who is mentally ill and wants to kill people to turn their hurt into strength. These type of phrases and glamorization of mental illness perverse the movie and it’s message.

Yes, this is an origin story for a made-up villain in a made-up world that clashes with a made up hero but what is this movie actually about? Its main message came out of The Joker’s mouth himself. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ABANDON THE MENTALLY ILL. They cut funding taking away his medicine and assigned him counselors that were tired, overworked and unconcerned. The only way he got attention was being made fun of. Was getting beaten up and blamed for it. Was to be given the same requirements in an operating society that was on normal adults. And as a result of this expectation he is defensive and can’t explain himself like a rational adult. He writes in his notebook “people expect you to behave as if you don’t.” He can hand them a card apologizing to them that he’s laughing, (as if he owes them an apology) and they will disregard it and continue to treat him cruelly. We can read about symptoms of a disorder and understand them but when confronted with them directly, we still struggle to not put the blame on the person with the disorder.

I know that you have depression but why do you have to be so sad all of the time? Life could be a lot worse.

I know that you have Alzheimer’s disease, but please just remember to do this one little thing.

I know you have bipolar disorder but why can’t you just make good decisions?

I know you have post traumatic stress disorder but please try not to wake me with a nightmare tonight. Just think happy thoughts so you feel better.

But instead, we see Joker’s rise to power as a symbol of strength. That he is now unbreakable. But the result of his rise to power isn’t because he grew stronger. His mental health deteriorated because of lack of support, understanding and compassion by people that repeatedly attempted to sweep him under the rug. And the only reason he rose to a position of leadership was because a lot of people felt abandoned.

This isn’t a glorification of mental illness. This is a message about compassion and what happens when it leaves society.

But on the bright side at least they saved a couple thousand dollars cutting that funding.