I am involved in a cooperative piece of work at the moment which included developing a set of presentations on Mental Health. As my background is in mental health I am well qualified and experienced to do so and as I am also a qualified teacher and trainer also well able to develop a good slide set.
After completing the task I sent out the presentations to people who would also be be involved in training groups, we met and discussed the content and a few adjustments made. However, the emails that followed focussed on the images I had used, they were on the darker side and had images of skulls, Death and one of a noose, in context they supported slides on suicide.
The images were seen to be insensitive and in danger of deepening stigma. Images without context, the perfect phenomenological dichotomy, the image itself is neutral it holds no opinion nor seeks to express one, the interpretation of image to thought is totally in the hands of the thinker. Like trying to read the mind of Mona Lisa, what was she thinking as she was being painted, or, like trying to read the mind of Da Vinci, what was he thinking whilst he was painting her. The painting cannot tell us. Only the Painter.
I wasn’t asked about the rationale for choosing the images, nor about how they were going to be linked to the training itself, only by asking questions could they have known if they would have ‘added to the stigmatisation of those who have mental health issues, or the potential for insensitivity within the training.
My rationale was very simple, those who do suffer with mental health issues do find it dark, isolating and often scary. To share through images how people see, think and feel and also to demonstrate how people see individuals with ‘mental problems’, odd, scary and to be avoided.
It also highlighted the power of imagery. Imagery has played a huge part in the news recently, the image of the dead child on the Mediterranean beach a few months ago, the images of Grenfell Tower and this week the images (and sounds) of children, having been ripped from their parents, held in cages in detention centres. These images change peoples perspectives.
Images can and are used to promote ideas, ideologies and opinions and should be questioned, £350 a week for the NHS is a god example. ‘See and believe’ or ‘See and Question’, if you want to know the true answer, the latter is better one.