Moral Panics, Mental Illness Stigma, And The Deinstitutionalization Movement In American Popular Culture
by Anthony Carlton Cooke /
2017 / English / PDF
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This book argues that cultural fascination with the “madperson”
stems from the contemporaneous increase of chronically mentally
ill persons in public life due to deinstitutionalization―the
mental health reform movement leading to the closure of many
asylums in favor of outpatient care. Anthony Carlton Cooke
explores the reciprocal spheres of influence between
deinstitutionalization, representations of the “murderous,
mentally ill individual” in the horror, crime, and thriller
genres, and the growth of public associations of violent crime
with mental illness.
This book argues that cultural fascination with the “madperson”
stems from the contemporaneous increase of chronically mentally
ill persons in public life due to deinstitutionalization―the
mental health reform movement leading to the closure of many
asylums in favor of outpatient care. Anthony Carlton Cooke
explores the reciprocal spheres of influence between
deinstitutionalization, representations of the “murderous,
mentally ill individual” in the horror, crime, and thriller
genres, and the growth of public associations of violent crime
with mental illness.
