Making ‘madness’: The discursive construction of ‘mental illness’ in the Canadian press

The purpose of this research is to elaborate on contemporary strategies utilised by the popular press in the construction of a mentally ill ‘other’. In particular, this study explores the articulation of power, knowledge and ideology in and through media articles about mental illness. The method by which this research was conducted included a Foucauldian (1972) discourse analysis of 195 articles drawn from The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail over the past decade (1990–1999). Key findings of this study show that the depiction of violence in association with the mentally ill is a common reporting strategy in popular press. This study also shows that a primary formulation in the representation of the mentally ill rests on an Us versus Them polarisation where ‘Us’ is constituted as society in general, and ‘Them’ include those considered mentally ill. As well, this study found that within the polarisation of Us versus Them, there exists a hierarchy of mental illness. That is, the news media was shown to represent various versions of mental illness in a variety of ways. Four primary categories were identified that included Criminally-Mentally Ill, Passive Patient, Class-Based Illness and Illness as Art. Within these categories, it was discovered that the media represents different ‘types’ of mental illness according to implicit measures of their assumed distance from ‘normal’. That is, certain versions and depictions of mental illness were considered ‘more deviant’ than others and therefore, were constituted as being farther away from ‘normal’. The implications of such findings are discussed in terms of the overall patterns and meanings attributed to mental illness as a category.