Медийният образ на хората с психични разстройства
Media Image of People with Mental Disorders

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the results of a study of media images of people with mental disorders in Bulgaria. Quantitative content analysis of 592 publications in tree media websites – “24 chasa”, “Dnes” and “Dnevnik”, for four-month period (September – December 2019), was conducted. The dominant approach to thematic presentation is through an individual framework; people with mental disorders are presented as aggressive and dangerous. Mental illness is used to signify the severe acts of violence described in the publications. Health information articles are poorly represented in the sample. Here, the representation of institutions does not support future reform, and the health-related information is incomplete and often misleading. One of the contributions of the study is the analysis of sporadic references; there are two types of sporadic uses - metaphorical and literal. In the metaphors, there is a distinction between the world of „madness” and that of the „normal man,” and this is precisely the technique for alienating difference. „Madness” is understood as irrationality and in this sense is associated with both negative and positive meanings. At the same time, articles with sporadic references that use the word with the root „psych-” build mental health as the norm, and hence focus on various micro-deviations (at risk of potentially pathologizing micro-differences in behavior and perceptions).

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