Byron to Batman: The Pop Culture Problem of Romanticizing Mental Illness | Katlyn Firkus | TEDxUGA

[@andrewwood9422]

Mental illness and suffering doesn't make characters amazing, overcoming them does.

[@Saieras]

Good Byronic heroes are amazing.

[@-_YouMayFind_-]

Mental illness is in most cases even pretty destructive and you hurt others with it at times and yourself. I don't understand what is nice or romantic about that.

[@hastensavoir7782]

Colleen C one way of romanticizing mental illness is having too much of a “compassion” to some patient. People think if they have compassion towards a mentally sick person that it makes them a good person. Their morals, their code, it is a big joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. I say this because it’s easy for them to say what’s IDEAL just because they don’t have a family member who is mentally sick. It is hard for a patient’s family to live with it day in day out. The horrors are far beyond what those masses think it is. It takes its toll on the family.

[@sunnyesarker9589]

Well, in many cases, mental illness can't be overcome. You can try to manage it as good as you can.

[@YourMom-iy6cv]

and surviving them many commit suicide sadly

[@sarahl.5748]

I’ve realized that the first step to self-recovery is to stop feeling sorry for yourself.

[@rainystone607]

Lady of Avalon I am a bad man and feel great

[@cerealfanatic]

Yeah like obviously telling people to get over their depression doesn't work, but man you gotta get over it...

[@YourMom-iy6cv]

That’s diff romanticising mental illness is a coping mechanism to twist the pain at its best. Like when you look on the bright side of depression but it isn’t really bright

[@Halfassedtea]

The psychology is so intricate, deep and unique behind modern romanticizing. Props to her for being brave and successfully tacking the situation!

[@worrywirt]

She moves her hands like a dancer, it’s so beautiful

[@Saieras]

Hello, fellow stoner!

[@worrywirt]

Saieras ugh I wish

[@garycoates4987]

there really isn't a problem in the "Byronic hero" as romanticizing mental illness. the argument can be made fiction creates complex character narrative and complex character narrative is more entertaining as drama, I think a point that you are making is one of the laziness of story telling to simply fall back on the tropes letting a character type create a fiction narrative. the best point here is that creators of fiction here have actually fallen into that framework taking the Byronic hero and narrowing it down into a very superficial simplistic character that people idealise more than identify with. by that I mean a character in good fiction is one that we can examine their motives in some way and ask ourselves questions about their course of action in relation to how we would act in similar circumstances. the problems she has pointed out to us is that no one is asking those questions any more, putting fictional characters in the realm of real persons that the audience might emulate. the ideal in real life is to overcome mental illness or any other traumatic negative circumstance, what has spilled over from.the laziness of fiction is that without trauma a person is undefined and without substance. the summary of what she is saying is people have made trauma a precious commodity of self definition rather than an obstacle to overcome in self awareness.

[@PhoenixRising87]

I think the point is more that the Byronic Hero is one of many examples of how the media throughout history has conflated misery and suffering with brilliance, and that mindset it what leads to mental illness being trivialized or romanticized,

[@DarkAngelEU]

*Cult of Personality playing in the background*

[@Kovukingsrod]

Amazing talk, you worded it so wonderfully. More people need to see this

[@avahampton6612]

I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL

[@sarahl.5748]

This woman is great

[@ananya.a04]

She hits the bullseye with every dart she hits. Her words her so apt, precise and beautifully phrased at the same time. More people need to see this and realize the mistakes they make.

[@saracorwin3287]

How do I know if I've caused my own mental illness, trying to relate and in a sense making excuses for myself? I struggle with this thought all the time. Can I give myself a serious mental illness?

[@emily_lamoreaux]

This video needs to go viral! Such a great message. ❤

[@ShrinkTank]

@TEDx Talks , as a big fan of Psychology and Pop Culture, I had to give your video a watch and thought it was really cool how you incorporated the romanticism of mental illness with television and movie stars. Great stuff.

[@rosalbadelriogarcia9598]

TIK tok

[@ArtistPoorvi]

This is so incredibly awesome

[@halcyon5zippo]

Wise, wise words

[@drifterodysseus6237]

"A plethora of almost exclusively white men..." Was the "white men" bit necessary? I'm not white, but the last thing I care about any characters are their race or gender. I like my characters to be good and transcending, any other element on the surface is secondary. You can also attribute the large majority of white male characters to the fact that the creators of these stories are white men themselves. Nothing wrong with that.

[@DarkAngelEU]

Dude, she (or should I say xhe?) used Tumblr as an example of romanticizing mental illness. "White male" is on her bingo chart.

[@itsisha9762]

Brilliant talk.

[@tristissimvshominvm8999]

People do this because they have no life and no goals or aspirations. Basically they're bored and want to make of their life a tragic story. It works for them because it justifies them feeling sorry for themselves at the same time. I think it's related to that victimization mentality.

[@OutragedPufferfish]

This was really good.

[@halima3264]

Absolutely right

[@miguel-ug7el]

One of the best ted talks i ever heard seriously the way she say and the approach to the theme is objetive and very informative

[@thefausty5195]

She missed another very "Byronic Hero" - Gregory House.

[@michelle7286]

The best art came from people in pain just saying for people genuinely suffering with depression being able to understand this through other peoples art helps at least for me so I don’t understand why we have to be punished for art that speaks to us :/

[@hilatziporachase6461]

I'm sorry some unfortunately opinionated individual was the only one to comment so far =/ Anyway! Wonderful talk, full of very well made points that are much-needed. For a while now (certainly throughout my childhood) it is nearly impossible to identify as shy, intelligent, interesting, unique, bookworm-ish, artistic or so on without falling into this trap of romanticizing mental illness, negative weirdness, and suffering. The Byronic hero is a cause certainly, as well as so many other tropes throughout western narratives (to be fair, the Greeks did it too). There is also so much else involved in it directly, plus other complex issues connected (a plethora of diverse subcultures, the aesthetic of suffering and darkness themselves as legitimate forms of expression and beauty...but those things can be done in a healthy way that people often do not realize until well after their depressed young-adult stages, if ever). It is a very deep issue that needs very deep and careful solutions, and I am really happy to see a talk on it =] Thank you.

[@plexpopper8763]

But when you're mentally ill, you can't deal with your emotions in a healthy way. That's the problem with this talk. She used Sherlock Holmes as an example of glorifying mental disabilities by making him a genius, but he has the same disorder that Einstein had, so it's a moot point. Furthermore, she used Kimmy Schmidt as an example of how characters who've suffered from illness or trauma should be portrayed, but Kimmy Schmidt is a comedy show, which is why it portrays trauma in a completely inaccurate way. If all mentally ill characters behaved that way, it would be much more offensive than how they're portrayed now. And when mental illness is portrayed on screen, it's never anxiety, depression, mpd or bi polar, it's almost always ASPD, like in Dexter. But those illnesses aren't glorified, they're humanized. When a villain is put on the spotlight as the main character, it's to show that murderers are people too, not the one dimensional killing machines we like to pretend they are.

[@BenWitya]

Came for Batman, stayed for mental illness

[@CMStrawbridge]

Kimmy Schmidt seems crazier than the average TBH

[@lamborghinicentenario2497]

Sorry, but the Byronic Hero is literally a God. Get clapped.

[@drsatyamupadhyay]

And it's coming from someone who says 'white men' and has a short blonde hair 😂. She can do better

[@luisacampos3893]

this talk was perfect

[@rainystone607]

Ana Luísa Campos no it wasn’t woman love killers like Richard Ramirez and people that do suffer become something great like John Lennon

[@luisacampos3893]

@@rainystone607 the minority of people that suffer can turn that into something great. we just don't give attention to the ones (thousands) who don't thrive. and there's those who try to make something, but the mind still wins the game, like kurt cobain

[@rainystone607]

Ana Luísa Campos I used to be a good person but it does not feel great now that i am part of darkness I feel alive like I never been

[@luisacampos3893]

@@rainystone607 you sound like a thirteen year old boy going through a dark emo phase

[@rainystone607]

Ana Luísa Campos dude trust me we all have a dark side that helps us be real not fake

[@byronicman]

I resent these remarks...

[@D-MF-L]

Couldn’t somebody else lecture us?

[@rosalbadelriogarcia9598]

Corolation does not equal causation

[@timlidabacc5838]

Why does this make me laugh 😂

[@danielkrum]

This gave me brain damage

[@earlolson4850]

Huh???

[@Spoeism]

This woman looks like she came off the Poly-Millennial-Misandry assembly line. I'd like to see a woman who adopts this cultures markers and views, actually use EMPATHY to understand the trails of men, instead of TALKING AT THEM all the time, womansplaining. I just see arrogance pontificate from her, I don't see understanding and analysis.

[@PhoenixRising87]

Sir, this is an Arby's...

[@Spoeism]

@@PhoenixRising87 Does "Arby's" translate to "Ideologues" consumed by Misandrist prejudice masked as Feminism, working their way to becoming fashionable Demagogues for normalizing Gender prejudices? I'm Gen X, so some Gen Z slang goes over my head ;)

[@angelinatran4930]

Isn't this just a video that talks about the romanticism of mental illness being bad?

[@edgyintellect177]

Positivity sucks

[@mannysong1752]

Mostly women...

[@TheLucifer92]

That outfit is not very flatteing tbh......