One in seventeen people in America suffers from a mental disorder. These disorders prevent the affected person from functioning properly and from carrying out daily life normally. Many suffering from psychological disorders have no obvious symptoms, as medical advances have made it possible for these disorders to be suppressed or even non-existent. Today, however, strong stigmas exist that unfairly classify those suffering from mental illness as violent, hostile, and abnormal. The media and the federal government are guilty of creating unrealistic portrayals of mental disability that define the portrayal of those who are mentally or psychologically disadvantaged. The media is and has been one of the strongest means of perpetuating negative stereotypes about mental illness. Since the invention of television and its spread into every American household in the 1960s, television programs have produced an image of the mentally disabled as dangerous and unpredictable. The shows depict the mentally ill as very violent; “One in four mentally ill characters kills someone, and half are depicted hurting others.” The way mentally disabled people are filmed within a show is also different from the way non-disabled characters are filmed. Studies show that they are usually filmed “alone with close-up or extreme shots, reinforcing their isolation and detachment from other characters” and society. In films, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, characters who are treated in psychiatric wards are similarly portrayed as crazy and violent, while the mental health field as a whole is negatively stereotyped. Films show facilities are places where electroshock and psychosurgery are commonly practiced middle...... half paper...... people with mental illnesses?." Gale Power Search. Web. March 19 2012. http ://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=san47811&tabID=T 002&searchId=R3&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=3&contentSet=GALE%7CA19 9865961&&docId=GALE|A199865961&docType =GALE&role=EAIM."TV dramas give a misleading view of mental illness, claims report | Society | The Guardian." Latest US news, world news, sport and commentary from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian. Web. 15 March 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov / 22/tv-programmes-mental-illness.Watters, Ethan. "The Americanization of Mental Illness - NYTimes.com." Breaking News, World News and Multimedia Web. www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?pagewanted=all.