Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In this collection of essays, domestic and international scholars from a range of fields explore representations of mental illness across various mediums of popular culture. Contributors address how forms of psychiatric disorder have been addressed in film, on stage, and in literature"-- Provided by publisher.

The hero with a thousand dysfluencies: the changing portrayal of people who stutter / Jeffrey K. Johnson -- Representations of attention deficit disorder: portrayals of public skepticism in popular media / Elizabeth S. EnglandKennedy -- Smooth operator: the compensated psychopath in cinema / Debra Merskin -- The most dangerous deviants in America: why the disabled are depicted as deranged killers / Shawn M. Phillips -- Off their rockers: representations of postpartum depression / Laura Tropp -- Lesbianism and the fourth dimension: the psychotic lesbian / Julian Vigo -- "The veteran problem": examining contemporary constructions of returning veterans / Alena Papayanis -- Musical storm and mental stress: trauma and instability in contemporary American musical theater / Esther Terry -- Bad girls: from Eve to Britney / Wanda Little Fenimore -- Evolving stages: representations of mental illness in contemporary American theater / Sarah J. Rudolph -- New media as a powerful ally in the representation of mental illness: YouTube, resistance and change / Katie Ellis -- On the wings of Icarus: exploring the flawed superhero / Lawrence C. Rubin -- The aesthetics of mad spaces: policing the public image of graffiti and mental illness in Canada / Kimberley White -- Beyond beyond reason: images of people with mental disabilities in Australian film since the 1970s / Philippa Martyr -- Representing "tradition," confusing "modernity": love and mental illness in Yoruba (Nigerian) video films / Sabeed Aderinto -- Reframing mental health and illness: perspectives from the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival / Lee Knifton.