The Germanwings tragedy got us talking about mental illness. Shame the talk is so narrow
A friend tells me that well-meaning people often ask her what the special talent of her son with autism is. She tends to answers: “Gabriel’s special talent is having a meltdown in the supermarket because the flicker of the fluorescent lights bothers him so much.” The question my friend is asked is born of the Rain Man effect; fiction and the media are full of cases of art/maths/music savants with autism. But such coverage of autism doesn’t help my friend much. In the supermarket she’s still the recipient of disapproving looks when Gabriel, now 11, is screaming on the floor.
The Germanwings tragedy has brought mental health on to the front pages. More attention on the impact of mental illnesses is warranted; far less is spent on care of these than of physical conditions. However, it also highlights the tendency for myths and rare but salient incidents to colour public perception in unhelpful ways.
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