Ooh, guess what I just read.

Tamara Daily, a professor of psychology at Mount Union College in Ohio, has created a new class called “Movies and Madness.” According to CantonRep.com, the class:

[...] examines society’s attitudes about mental illness and challenges misconceptions fostered by TV and movies.

Daily hopes the class will help educate students about and bust the stigma of mental illness that so many movies and television shows help foster with their often inaccurate depictions of mental health problems. She lists Fight Club and Silence of the Lambs as two such movies, and notes that such bad examples could help lead to violence against people with mental illness.

And I hope the class continues to stay as popular as it seems to be right now – it was filled up by the first day, with a waiting list of 25.

There’s something to be said about textbooks and clinicals, but in this day and age, failing to use pop culture as a supplemental educational tool seems like a waste. I may be a bit biased – given my own similar goals with Celebrity Psychings, ha – but I think this is a brilliant idea and I sincerely wish Daily the best of luck.

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From Psych Central's Alicia Sparks:
The 5 Scariest Things About Mental Illness | Celebrity Psychings (October 31, 2011)

    Last reviewed: 31 Oct 2011