The impact of mass market literature on public perceptions of forensic psychiatry

Abstract

This study seeks to identify influences on public perception of child and adolescent forensic psychiatry, focusing on the complete works of Stieg Larsson. Effects on lay beliefs and patient expectations were also explored. A brief history of the female protagonist and a briefing on the author's left-wing origins are included. Comparisons are made between fictional services and the reality in British forensic services, focusing on differences in clinical and organisational aspects of care. The heightened influence of music and art therapy above and beyond national curriculum requirements, as postulated by Tervo (2001) and Keen (2004) are explored. Corresponding film studies and historically seminal studies of psychiatry in literature (Dudley 1994) corroborate the finding that psychiatrists are universally ambivalently or negatively portrayed. Also, Larsson benefits from author reliability bias. Finally, there is an exploration of how literature enhances psychiatric practise. Dudley (1994) proposed key roles for author as social critics who "call psychiatrists to account" and "heighten consciousness of psychological development". Also fiction's role as a "storehouse of intrapsychic images" is discussed.