As society’s understanding and acceptance of mental health disorders continues to grow, is it time for crime writers to retire the trope of mentally ill murderers?
From alcoholic detectives to homicidal murderers and victims with amnesia, crime fiction is a genre full of characters with mental illnesses. In fact, out of all the crime books I’ve read this year, I don’t think I could name a single one where none of the characters had some sort of problem with their mental health.
Yet despite mental health being so pervasive in crime fiction, the genre is also notorious for being bad with their portrayal of people with mental illnesses—particularly when the person with the mental health issue is the perpetrator of the crime.
I’ll be the first to say: I’m tired of reading about mentally ill murderers.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with writing antagonists with mental illnesses. Some argue that it’s overused, or that it’s ableist to write people with mental health disorders as the murderer, but I think it’s all about the treatment.
What I mean by that is, I’m fine with the trope as long as these characters are written with nuance.
The problem is, most of the time, the disorders these characters are struggling with are badly researched and only exist as a means to “spice up” a plot or throw in a twist at the end of the story.
Aside from the fact that it’s lazy writing to force a disorder or alternate personality on a character just to gloss over plot points that don’t make sense, portraying mentally ill people as killers also has real world implications. It’s bad enough to be dealing with a mental health disorder—especially less common ones like schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder)—without the books we read adding to the stigma.
For most people, their only knowledge of this condition will come from depictions of these disorders in fiction or in the media. When the only exposure we have to characters with schizophrenia are serial killers, we’ll inevitably learn to associate these mental illnesses with violence and danger.
And what about personality disorders?
We’ve all heard of the ‘psychopathic’, ‘sociopathic’, ‘borderline’ or ‘narcissistic’ murderer, but how much do we actually know about these personality disorders beyond the fact that they make for unfeeling, unpredictable killers?
As forensic psychiatrist Susan Hatters-Friedman wrote: “In reality, mental illnesses are not plot twists, but serious and potentially impairing diagnoses that people need to seek treatment for.”
In fact, research has shown that people with mental health problems are more likely to become victims of crime than the general public. If we stereotype people with mental illnesses as untrustworthy and violent, will the stigma make it more difficult for them to seek help?
Victim Support Chief Executive Javed Khan, who worked on the study, said: “It is nothing short of a national scandal that some of the most vulnerable people in our society become victims of crime so often and yet when they seek help they are met with disbelief or even blame.”
Personally, I like stories where people like us are killers. I’m a true crime fanatic, and I’ve heard of so many cases in real life where completely normal people commit horrific murders without a mental illness, so I’m drawn to narratives of people who snap and kill after being pushed over the edge.
That’s just me, though.
Do I think we can avoid giving killers mental illnesses altogether? No. Authors will continue to write mentally ill murderers as long as there’s an audience out there interested in them.
But can authors write them better? Definitely.
If you liked this post then read Think piece: Is discrimination necessary for works of fiction? or Why is crime fiction fixated on women as victims of violent crime? next.
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If you liked this post then read Think piece: Is discrimination necessary for works of fiction? or Why is crime fiction fixated on women as victims of violent crime? next.
You can also find more BLOT content on our socials: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.
Shani Lim
weishan.blotmag@gmail.com
Shani is a journalism student obsessed with books, dance, and all things true crime. When she’s not stuck in the middle of a good book, she’s listening to podcasts or watching hour-long video essays on YouTube.
Favourite genre: Crime.