Illness as metaphor and the role of new media

I have a number of ideas in my head that I am trying to connect.  I am not sure where to begin.

So let’s go directly to the psychiatric ward and listen to Clive’s story.

A tall, somewhat overweight, young man in his mid-twenties; the first time we met was outside my office on my first day in the hospital.  Wearing a Manchester United t-shirt and a broad smile, Clive shook my hand and introduced himself.

‘Hello, Mister!  My name’s Clive and I am a schizophrenic.  But I’m not dangerous.’

Without me evening noticing, Clive already had the upper hand and had effectively disarmed the social stereotype that I was bringing to our first encounter.

Over the next few weeks, as I got to know Clive and his fellow patients, I began to understand the relevance of Susan Sontag’s ideas in her work on Illness as Metaphor; how attitudes to disease in society are formed through the stories we tell about them; and how damaging these tall tales of sickness can be when we get the story wrong.

As modern day raconteurs, the Media rightly stands accused here.  We hardly need to reference the constant flow of metaphors (who has not seen headlines such as ‘Psycho: Keep Crazies Off Our Streets’?) that have defined, stigmatized and, ultimately dehumanized those suffering with mental illness. 

These are not new ideas.  In fact, to be fair, the Media has moved a long way since Sontag first raised these issues back in 1993.  So AIDs is no longer narrated as the ‘gay plague’ as it was back in the 1980s and many of the once-common ‘psycho’ headlines have, thankfully, disappeared from our newspapers.

So it’s all good news for people like Clive?

Well, not exactly.  The thing is, I am not sure that the problem has gone away.  You see, something else has happened.  With the rise of new media, we have become the journalists and storytellers of our generation. 

And, clearly, we are not always getting the story right first time.

Take ‘Swine Flu’ as an example and role of Twitter in breaking the story.  This is already well documented, but Tweets such as ‘Be careful...Swine Flu is not only in Mexico now. 8 cases in the States. Pig = Don't eat’ were commonplace as information was lacking in the first days of the ‘crisis’.  And, as one writer put it, ‘In moments like this, one is tempted to lament the death of broadcasting, for it seems that the information from expert sources -- government, doctors, and the like – should probably be prioritized over everything else and have a higher chance of being seen that the information from the rest of one's Twitter-feed, full of speculation, misinformation, and gossip.’ (Link)

Is this, then, the end of Twitter and its friends?  Has it already met its downfall in its susceptibility to misinformation?

Clearly, not.  It is true that, over time, we will all need to become more discerning about the information that is passed through particular channels; learning to verify and filter stories as tall or truthful tales.  Equally, we will need to find better ways of teaching our children to do the same. 

And it is not all bad news.  You don’t have to look too hard to find some promising green shoots - truthful stories told by ordinary folk; stories that challenge our assumptions and finally set the records straight.  Offering power to the people, new media today is giving a voice to these ‘heroes’ who, previously, were unable to speak out.  They are narrating their own future, rather than having someone else dictating it to them.

Take Addy, for example.  He is 29 and suffers from mental illness.  I first ‘met’ Addy on YouTube.  He has a story to tell; a story worth listening to; a story that moves me, makes me pause to reflect for a while and challenges my assumptions. 

I do not know Addy personally.  We will almost certainly never meet.  But I figure he sums up what I am trying to say here far better than I ever could.  So I will let him have the final word.