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Writing Psychotic Characters: Considering Internal Biases First

HI HI HI BEFORE YOU READ THIS RIDICULOUSLY LENGTHY POST (DIDN'T MEAN TO), SOME DISCLAIMERS!!

I use "psychotic" and "schizospec" interchangeably here, because when discussing psychotic rep I can most confidently speak for characters with psychotic disorders, or disorders on the schizospectrum (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform, and schizotypal/schizoid personality disorder).

(Update (Aug. 24, 2025): this was not all inclusive! I do not have SZPD myself, but many people with schizoid personality disorder also consider themselves schizospec. Not EVERY person with SZPD, but I shouldn't have left it out. I did initially reference the DSM -- however, there are also psychotic disorders categorized outside of the schizospectrum, and STPD is by many, many people now considered a more "mild" schizophrenia despite being grouped into with Cluster A PDs. A lot of this research is still very new, and a good deal of old ideas surrounding psychosis are very wrong. So take of all of that what you will.)

You do not have to have a psychotic disorder to have experienced psychosis, and thought disorganization and other symptoms can be attributed to disorders that aren't traditionally psychotic.

So I'm not covering everyone, I'm only one person and unable to, but these are good general guidelines when covering psychosis sensitively in your stories. Be specific in your intents and your research, as always.

Understand the Stigma Surrounding Psychosis

SO! Please take psychosis seriously when you see or hear of it in real life before you want to write it! Much easier said than done for many people!

You should apply this line of thinking to ANY group of people you're trying to represent, as a good rule of thumb, but there is such a dissonance between people's theoretical support and their actual attitudes towards psychosis that I want to call attention to that before making any other reference material or any writing guides.

Will be real: half the time I get worried when people tell me they want to write a psychotic character. Especially if the character is schizophrenic, but any psychotic(-adjacent) disorder.

"But why? Shouldn't you be happy to see representation?" Yes! And I feel the same way I do with portrayal of any mental disorders; I feel elated to be seen in these stories until I see the way those authors treat psychotic people in real life.

That or the idea is great on paper until you see how much more thoughtful they were with every other character. Either way, once you see it, you're just left disappointed, you know?

Before you start on writing your schizospec OC, or your OC with another condition that also causes psychotic symptoms, or your OC having an acute psychotic episode and then never again, I need you to examine your own approach to real schizospecs. And after you've examined that, be very, very careful with what messaging you might be evoking by falling into similar patterns in your character that we see in most "representation" now.

I will not be discussing the specifics on what psychosis and schizospec disorders are in this post. That will come next. I want to take this time to immediately debunk any preconceived notions before we do anything else because it is dire out here.

[CW: sanism (defined in post) and mentioned violence towards schizospec people as a central subject. Hate crimes and murder are also briefly but directly brought up, as well as antiblack racism, and antisemitism via conspiracy theory. This post will be heavy in its subject matter.]

The language in this post is going to be less gentle than in how I'm structuring my other ones, because being gentle and overly polite about this subject has gotten me nowhere. If I want someone to understand I have to be direct. I am not trying to be mean, and any frustration that gets through is towards how deep-rooted sanism is and not you, the reader, in particular. I promise!

Sanism is a specific branch of ableism: “an irrational prejudice against people with mental illness” (Perlin, JD., 2013). Sanism in this post will be referring to sanism against psychotic people.

Okay!

———

Examine Your Biases First

Ask yourself before anything else: why do I want to write a psychotic character to begin with? Most reasons won't be inherently bad, but it's definitely important to ask -- it is when you write someone of any minority demographic, really, because that added identity is going to give weight to what you write!

Yes, even if that bias Doesn't Exist In Your Story. Yes, even if nothing discriminatory happens to the OC regardless. You have to think about these things if you want to write any intentional representation at all.

Are you writing them this way because you want an antagonistic force in your story? Are you writing them this way because you'd find the "zaniness" to be comedic? Are you writing them this way because you need a "contrast" to your "normal, healthy" cast?

If you realize that's where you were going with it, even if subconsciously, good. Sit with that. Think about the implications and if that's really what you want to do with your narrative. The only way we can do others justice in our writing is if we actively check our own biases (and honestly you should already be doing this while in real life situations, but if you haven't started yet then now is better then later!).

The question is not meant to be "why does this character have to be psychotic, there must be a REASON" thing, either -- while there are environmental factors that play into disabilities, there's no Narrative Cosmic Reason that disabled people are disabled in real life. We Just Are. You do not have to justify having a schizospec character to anyone!

NOW, before you start writing, still, ask yourself these questions. They are not writing exercises, they are meant to evaluate your feelings and potential prejudice. Remember that the only way to improve is to be honest with yourself, even if it's hard the first time -- it does get easier, and regardless we all need to try.

(If you find that any of the below does not apply to you, don't let yourself off too easy! I can't either, learning is a process for all of us and what I'm about to list is below the bare minimum depictions. You should want to strive to be better than this.)

Think:

– If I find someone's behavior, actions or views horrible or unacceptable, do I jump to calling them "psychotic" or a "psycho"? Will I excuse this sort of language depending largely on how violently or aggressively that person behaves?

– When/To what people do I make "in your walls"/"[x] in your skin"/"schizoposting" "jokes"? What is it that I find funny about doing this? If someone tells me to stop, do I ignore them?

– Is "schizoposting", done by someone who isn't psychotic but labels their "crazy" behavior that way for the bit, something I either find funny or am unbothered by?

– How about when it's outside mockery of a schizospec person's stress of fear? Is someone's distress funny to me if their reasoning is illogical?

– Do I use the term "schizo" to describe anything or anyone? What is it I find funny about it? (And, if somebody defends the usage with "well, it's not a slur": why do you feel the need to say that?)

– When I see someone in person or over media (ex: video) show symptoms of psychosis (ex: delusions, disorganized speech), what is my first gut reaction? Disgust? Fear? Amusement? Do I make fun of people for "acting crazy"?

– Do I call myself or other things delusional or "delulu" with the intent to mock someone or make light of something, divorced from what delusions actually are? (“Does it count if I do this and it's actually a delusion, though??” YES, EVEN MORE SO)

– If I know someone to be psychotic, do I then tend to assume their stress or their fear is irrational? Have my opinions on them changed if I became aware of their psychosis during our relationship? Do I feel threatened by their fear or upset where I didn't before?

– If someone says they are psychotic (doubly applies if they specifically say they're schizophrenic), do I assume that they're joking before I assume they're being serious? How often do I make this assumption, if so? And if so, why do I find this kind of joke funny?

– Do I associate psychosis with tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists or violent, unpredictable threats to my immediate safety?

– How do I feel when I hear people talking to themselves in public? How do I feel when someone has disorganized speech? Do I feel nervous or afraid? Do I assume that they're on drugs? Do I feel an urge to call the police seeing someone talk out loud to no one in public?

– Am I comfortable or unbothered when other people do or enable any of the above?

If the answer to any of these was "yes" (or, in non yes/no questions, indicates negative perception of psychotic experiences) stop writing right now. I need you to PAUSE what you are doing and unpack these feelings first.

This is also NOT an all-inclusive list! I am POSITIVE there are additional things to be taken into account that I might have missed when making a general overview, these are just the most glaring things I see all the time. From people that claim they're progressive, too! "Fighting the battle against ableism towards NDs" and you lost!! Get up!! It is not over yet!!!

Oh, that's another one. Do you see psychotics as neurodivergent? Because we are. By dictionary and scientific literature definition, we are. And while we're at it, let's look into that a little more! What's your definition of neurodivergent? Is it limiting? Now would be a good time to reflect on that one, too!

Autism and ADHD, for example, easily considered neurodivergence under the original definition. Schizospectrum disorders, that fit under this exact same definition, are rarely referred to as such; instead, we get to be called a devastating disease (in textbooks, too!). There's different connotations in everything down to the language used to talk about psychotic people!

———

Oh, What, So I Just Can't Ever Try to Write This at All?

NOT WHAT I SAID 🦅🦅🔥🔥🔥

I am not saying to never write psychotic disorders at all or ever seek improvement if you realize you hold biases you didn't ever confront before. The OPPOSITE, in fact. I am telling you to get a more nuanced and humanized perception of schizospecs and other psychotic people BEFORE you go through with whatever narrative choices you're about to make. If you do not examine your potential internal sanism before you write your schizospec character you are going to do more harm.

I am also not personally inclined to trust someone that says they want to write a respectful portrayal of, say, schizoaffective disorder, but outside of their Beautiful Project calls everything "delusional" and thinks telling people to rip their skin off is funny. Shouldn't even have to be said. What the hell

———

Alright, I'm Done Looking Inward. Now What?

Now that you've had a long moment to unpack your own preconceived notions, we also have to examine the rampant societal fear and dehumanization of psychotic people.

Historical Perception of Schizospecs

Doctors Did Not Like Us Very Much

The stereotypes came from somewhere and that somewhere is systemic ableism. I wish I could discuss this more, but I'm nearly done writing and this is way too long.

Recommended reading if anyone is interested until I have the time and room to delve more into historical sanism: “Psychiatry's contribution to the public stereotype of schizophrenia: Historical considerations” (Katschnig, 2018).

Some excerpts from that I feel speak for themselves:

“All my professional life, I have witnessed the despair of patients and their family members when confronted with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It is perceived as a virtual death sentence in terms of referring to a chronic, deteriorating, and incurable disease, to a “split personality” implying unpredictability, and to craziness symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, leading to dangerous behaviour. Since patients and family members know that everyone is thinking like this, the anticipated negative reaction by the social environment weighs heavily.”

“Being aware of the public stereotype, I observed myself and my colleagues, how we often tended to avoid as long as possible to communicate the diagnosis, knowing that all these elements were either completely wrong (split personality) or only potentially but not necessarily characteristic of the diagnosis of schizophrenia (chronicity; hallucinations and delusions).”

“(...) it must also be remembered that all diagnostic systems developed in the first 150 years of psychiatry were based on assessing patients in mental hospitals (...). They saw a selection of patients at a stage of their disorder when they were most severely ill and disturbing for society, and this selection may have been different from hospital to hospital or country to country, which might explain some of the contradictory findings and suggestions of the leading psychiatrists of that period. Today, (...) the situation is entirely different, but elements of the old diagnostic concepts are still around.”

I want you to hold onto that wording. "When they were most severely ill and disturbing for society."

Historically there has never been sympathy for us. We also observe this currently: most condolences and grievances for someone having a chronic condition go to the family and not to the person. They're sorry for these people that are now burdened by a schizospec relative.

Societal bias shows us that others are more disturbed by their own proximity to someone with the disorder than we are to having it. People find out about your diagnosis or treatment for your psychotic condition and they act like you're dying. And that all is barely surface level knowledge; it really would need its own moment, which is why I'm leaving it here for now.

Another note before we go back into the writing part of this discussion: most of these references only mention schizophrenia by name even though the same stigma and prejudice can be applied to all of us, and are all the time! This is because people forget anything that isn't schizophrenia exists.

Immediate Tropes to Avoid

I'm a huge advocate for the idea that anything that can be written can be written well, given the execution of the premise. But there are some things that are so overdone and have perpetuated so much to sanism and violence against psychotic people that I don't want to see them ever again, personally!

Others' feelings might differ, we aren't a monolith and I encourage you to (respectfully) seek out as many perspectives as you can, obviously. That said: I do not just say things to say them. I consulted opinions outside of my own, and there is a very broad agreement that we could do with so much less of the following:

Homicidal Schizospec

Go to your search engine right now and look up "are schizophrenics" or "are psychotics" and count how many questions pop up ending in words like "-violent" and "-dangerous" and "-homicidal". "How many schizophrenics" or "how many psychotics" will also get you these results: how many are violent, how many are aggressive, how many kill themselves.

This does not happen if you look up less stigmatized disabilities (because YES it's a DISABILITY). There is clear bias in literally everything you could read on psychosis and the schizospectrum up until extremely recently because everybody that wants to report on it either feels bad for us by way of us being ill, or they're afraid of us.

I don't mean to be harsh but we do not need more Violent Crazy Psychos in media. It is tired, I am tired, everyone is tired.

In a 2012 analysis of schizophrenia representation in contemporary media, out of the 41 (41!!) sampled (English-speaking) movies from 1990 to 2010, the ratio of violent, homicidal or suicidal characters against nonviolent ones was insane. In a bad way! It was terrible.

“A majority of characters displayed violent behavior toward themselves or others, and nearly one-third of violent characters engaged in homicidal behavior. About one-fourth of characters committed suicide.” — Psychiatric Services (Owen PhD., 2012)

Of an identified 42 schizophrenic characters, an entire third of the violent characters attempted or committed murder, and most of the characters were violent. About one in four out of all of them killed themselves. Over 20 years -- 42 is more than half that, that'd be a little over two movies a year -- of representation for English-speaking schizospecs alone (not even MENTIONING how this might add on with OTHER media) and this is what we're getting. What the fuck.

This was 2012. I am positive this number has gone up since. While we are hopefully in a better place than we were before in terms of getting good representation (literally anything would be better than this) I cannot name a single character with a psychotic disorder that I'd feel is a good character. I can think of none off the top of my head.

Please Stop Making Your Psychotic Characters Try To Kill Somebody.

Conspiracy Theorist

This one SUCKS because when you look it up most of the immediate sources from it are validating the idea that all people with delusions are conspiracy theorists -- and, therefore, all conspiracy theorists are delusional.

Not even close to how that works. None of this is how anything works. Holding my head in my hands.

As of 2018 it was found via poll that “64%” of the US population, proportionally, believes in at least one conspiracy theory, and that it's a worldwide common phenomenon. And this is bad considering the rampant racism and antisemitism that is always, always, always in these theories, but it is NOT delusion. Schizospec people are NOT AT FAULT for this being so pervasive and I am frankly tired of being blamed for something I'm not part of at all!!

As Pierre MD (2021) puts it: “If a substantial majority believes in at least one conspiracy theory, we must accept that such beliefs aren’t pathological and shouldn’t be conflated with symptoms of mental illness.” He goes on to say that while these theories are unsubstantiated, outlandish, and very obviously wrong even when the belief is fixed, they “resemble other types of political, religious, and ideological beliefs that fall short of actual delusions for several reasons.”

These reasons being:

– “Conspiracy theories do occasionally turn out to be true and cease to be theories.”

– And they are “typically shared beliefs based on information that’s out there in the world, whereas delusions are typically idiosyncratic beliefs based on subjective experience with a self-referential component about the believer.”

— “Conspiracy Theories Aren't Delusions” (Pierre MD, 2021).

There isn't even any solid evidence that psychotics are more likely to fall under conspiracy ideological beliefs! That is literally just something everyone else DECIDED we have! These theories have political agendas behind them, they are pushed by either grifters or supremacists, they are not just Mental Illness Symptom #3, can we PLEASE stop throwing psychotic people under the bus for things we aren't responsible for.

To put it so bluntly, if you're going to code your psychotic character like a conspiracy theorist you are further pushing this stigma. I don't care how subversive you try to be with it.

I am a believer in execution mattering more than the premise, but when the premises everyone always tries to "do right this time" are Guy That Kills People and Guy That Believes In Lizard People, it's just exhausting. Can we let this go? I really want to let this go. I would love dearly if we let this go.

Even if you're not using it to portray your character as dangerous or willing to go to Extreme Bad Lengths for something, it's still not great. Because it's either that or you're doing it to pity them. And if neither you're making fun of them. There is absolutely zero way around it.

And if it IS going down the "funny" angle then that sucks just as badly! The entire joke every time is Crazy Guy Says Crazy Thing And That's Funny. How about we stop making fun of mentally ill people?

Split Personality

Historically this is how schizophrenia was read and that's just not how it works. I'll elaborate somewhere else later if I'm asked, but I feel it speaks for itself:

The schizospectrum are psychotic disorders that can be inherited genetically or onset by environmental stressors. DID (the "split personality" terminology is also outdated) is a dissociative trauma-based disorder.

I have both, so I can speak on this personally: they are not the same! It is in fact VERY easy for me to pick out which symptoms I have are from what! THAT is how different they are.

Schizophrenic people (and other psychotic people, but I've noticed this sort of misconception follows schizophrenic people around the most) don't have amnesia barriers and alternate "states" unless they're also a system. Not what that is!!

Systems ARE also read as violent murderers all the time though so I can see where some people get confused I GUESS (said through clenched teeth and I'm covered in blood)

White Man Every Time No One Else is Allowed to Be Schizospec Ever

Obviously you're allowed to write a schizospec white guy, there's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I'd love if you additionally considered characters or other demographics having psychotic conditions, too!

And also because one of the easiest ways to not play your characters of one thing off as a monolith is to have more than one in the story. Literally it is so easy once you get into the habit of doing it. You get to explore different angles to the same umbrella identity, how circumstances can wildly differ between two people part of the exact same group, it's great

People that aren't cis white men can be psychotic and are psychotic all the damn time. In fact, schizophrenia and all other psychotic disorders are more stigmatized in people of color (ESPECIALLY Black people) (like really disproportionately Black people, overlooked and overly demonized and overdiagnosed with no support after said diagnosis -- as far back as the Civil Rights movement, Black activists were being labeled schizophrenic so they'd be discredited).

— “Pathologizing Bias: Racial Disparities in The Diagnosis of Schizophrenia” (Kennedy, 2022)

— “Racial disparities in psychotic disorder diagnosis: A review of empirical literature” (Schwartz & Blankenship, 2014).

— “The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease” (Bell MD, 2011).

Those are three separate links to three separate sources, in that order.

“African Americans were at least four times more likely than whites to receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia.” On top of this, fear in the white population of the "scary psychotic Black people" “shifted the social service infrastructure from hospitalizing schizophrenia patients to incarcerating them” (Bell MD, 2011).

“Psychiatry positioned itself as an authority that interpreted the crisis posed by angry, protesting black men during the civil rights era, resulting in a seemingly benevolent social institution's dominating, oppressing, and exploiting people of color” (Bell MD, 2011). Bell also reports that “the rate of schizophrenia in prisons is five times higher than the rate in the general population,” which is not coincidental.

Any harm that the above tropes in media are doing to white schizospecs are doing more, double, triple to schizospecs of color and Black psychotic people especially (and, as we just read, Black people that aren't psychotic! White people were and are seeing something as understandable as a want for equal footing and safety in society and labeling it delusions!! People would call it schizophrenia and have activists thrown in prison!!! "Protest psychosis" is a TERM!!!).

We cannot have the conversation of systemic sanism without understanding how racism is inherently tied into that. It is inseparable. SO. Intersectionality is something you should read up on if you haven't already! Not just for storytelling, it's also just generally extremely useful to understand the concept. And you should want to know more about important things regardless I think.

This is also something you need to take into account, by the way; you should be willing to write characters that aren't just white people, but if your schizospec character is Black there will be a lot of added weight to it that you need to consider that I am not qualified to help you with on my own.

Yet in Owen's (2012) same analysis, they find that of the 41 films, “Forty-two characters (...) were identified, a majority of whom were male and [white].”

This has the terrible side effect of people not seen in these movies being at even higher risk for discrimination or worse -- if a white guy is recognized as psychotic at least people might know what that is. "Hey, I've seen that before in this grossly inaccurate movie!" -- but at least they've seen it. And they might, MIGHT, approach that person with some consideration. Not always, in fact seldom, but the chance is marginally higher.

———

Why and How These Stereotypes Do Real Harm

If you don't even consider the possibility of mental illness in other people (again, because you never see it written as something that can happen to other people), if someone is having a mental health crisis from a psychotic episode, you are not going to consider mental health first. You will see "volatile person that needs to be talked down or defended against" first.

And you might see "volatile person that needs to be talked down or defended against" first anyway if you know nothing at all about schizophrenia beyond the characters on screen that lash out and hurt people if you don't hurt them first in "preemptive" self defense.

That is why all of these things that I listed matter: they combine over time to create this caricature that informs how people see psychotic people, or psychotic "behavior". As erratic and threatening and something to be dealt with as quickly and with as much force as possible.

I am not going to put this lightly or sandwich it between any other sentences, because it has to be heard on its own:

This rhetoric kills people.

It is dangerous, on its own, to be schizophrenic, to be psychotic at all. And anything else you might have or be on top of that will just pile and pile and pile.

It will be more stigmatized in POC, as said above. It will be more stigmatized in women, who are already seen as crazy in many situations no matter what they do. It will be more stigmatized in people with additional disabilities. It will be more stigmatized in queer people. It will be more stigmatized in poor or homeless people than someone more well off (especially when you consider that of the 1% of the general population with schizophrenia, 20% of unhoused people are schizophrenic, and this is more often than not through the fault of a lack of support system rather than psychotic people just being Like That or whatever).

That is why I'm so serious about this subject. It is not just useless discourse on the Internet, this is my lived reality and people like me who need help will be unable to hide that they need help and then die for it, all the fucking time. I need you to understand this.

These things might be fun to write but contribute to both violence against psychotic people and internalized hatred in psychotic people, which is a scientifically backed phenomenon. This has been studied. One research project alone published to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health was conducted and finalized as recently as 2023.

It “affects symptom management, disease awareness and adherence to treatment,” “is often described as prejudice and discrimination caused by negative stereotypes associated with the diagnostic label” and associates us with “dangerousness, unpredictability and incompetence,” as found by Arboleya-Faedo et al. (2023).

“People with psychosis tend to endorse these stereotypes, anticipate social rejection and incorporate these views into their own value system, known as self-stigma (SS) or internalized stigma.” — International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Arboleya-Faedo et al., 2023)

(And this is all in the introductory parts of the research paper. They go into much greater detail after these points are established and I highly suggest reading through this if you have the time.)

If you believe yourself to be violent, or anticipate others to believe it, you are less likely to receive treatment. If you do go to someone for support and they believe that people with conditions like yours are violent, you are less likely to receive treatment. Everything down to the "lightest" jokes reinforces these beliefs and actively makes life harder for people with psychotic disorders.

How can you expect people to get better if you never bother understanding what their struggle actually is and are only concerned with them baselessly attacking you? How is it fair to tell someone that your jabs demonizing their condition are "nothing", that your fear of them that had never been a problem before is "warranted"? How can you be expected to be treated well by the emergency help people call for you and not actually murdered?

The way you portray people in stories does impact the way your audience will view them. Yes, an audience should engage in critical thinking, and no, you can't always account for what somebody's takeaways will be because an audience has preconceived biases, too, but this is a two-way street: you have a RESPONSIBILITY as an author to handle certain subjects with care.

And if you, the reader, are here on this blog, already this far into the post, I'm sure you already know that! Just by starting the research process you are already taking steps that so, so many don't, and it does help. It really does.

———

But I Knew A Schizophrenic (Exactly One in My Entire Life) and They Were Scary and Violent!

Okay! I don't care.

One person being terrible does not give you the excuse to be bigoted, end of story. I really am sorry that you had a terrible experience with someone, because no one deserves that, but that does not give you the right to lash out against every other person you know who also happens to have the same trait and didn't do anything.

This is applicable to any marginalized group. You don't get to hate an entire population because you had one bad encounter with one bad person who happened to be part of the group. I would be so much more sympathetic if people that said these things were not using it specifically to ENCOURAGE stigma towards people who are vulnerable enough as is.

It is not cute to say you're "scared" of schizospecs because you knew a "bad" one once (and do you actually KNOW for a fact that they were or did you DECIDE they were? Do you also call people borderlines and narcissists when they hurt someone? Are you just armchair diagnosing people you don't like?).

I also knew people in my family who were psychotic and also happened to be violent people, not because of the psychosis, but because they were already violent people. You know who also has a psychotic disorder, because of environmental factors and genetic predisposition? Me! And I am NOTHING like them!

There are MANY, many cases like that one. And it is blatantly unfair to associate any disability with abusive behavior. Yes, even the "bad ones" -- there is no "bad person" disorder. Get that out of your head Now if you haven't already. There is no "bad person" disorder.

I see this rhetoric way too much, I am SICK of it. PLEASE stop implying that I and everyone like myself are inherently dangerous people because we happen to have a disability that you don't. It does real harm -- and that harm is done to US and not to YOU.

You are not "adding nuance" to a discussion where violence committed by us is already universally accepted, and violence committed to us is considered okay as a result. You are perpetuating rhetoric that enables vulnerable people's ongoing pain. Everybody is VERY AWARE ALREADY that a psychotic person Might Hurt Or Kill Someone the same way that anybody else could. We do not need you reminding us every four seconds. It is not doing what you think it is.

There is no "I'm just making sure people don't forget that it can happen, though!" here that actually means anything because no one is forgetting. I promise you no one is forgetting. And it is blown insanely out of proportion.

I'm not saying these things can't be discussed, it's just very hard to believe that most are actually doing it in good faith. No one is saying that violence towards any other person is good or fine, but we need to separate the concepts of "abusive person" and "mentally ill person" because they're not the same.

———

We are FINALLY at the end of the post and I honest to God could have talked for so much longer but I don't want to keep everyone for too long at a time! If you made it through reading this whole thing, THANK you!! If you just needed a TL/DR for now and you're going to come back later, that is ALSO much appreciated!! I cannot stress enough how glad I am that you are taking your psychotic representation seriously in your work!!!!

Have Kinder Depictions Please

You don't have to make your psychotic OC a saint. They don't even have to be a good person. But please do not imply that their flaws or shortcomings in their story are because they are psychotic, or (significantly worse, in my opinion) that their condition means they pose an immediate danger to other people, even if it's "not that bad of a risk". It sucks no matter what don't DO that.

Schizospec and psychotic representation, like all representation, is important because the way fiction portrays subjects and people influences real audience perception of those subjects and people. In the same way no one is immune to propaganda, YOU are not immune to passively receiving messaging that comes from the typical schizophrenic character in your favorite movies. We all have to be vigilant about this sort of thing and call it out when we see it.

Overall, just ... treat the people in your life with thought disorder like people. Start there before anything.

And then write characters mindfully as if they are people, not something hurtful or dangerous by way of getting too close. We're more than that and we deserve more than that.

———

References:

– Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (Katschnig, 2018).

– AMA Journal of Ethics (Perlin JD, 2013).

– Neuroethics (May, 2025).

– International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Arboleya-Faedo et al., 2023).

– Psychiatric Services (Owen PhD, 2012).

– Brandeis University Writing Program (Kennedy, 2022).

– World Journal of Psychiatry (Schwartz & Blankenship, 2014).

– Psychiatric Services (Bell MD, 2011).

– Psychology Today: Psych Unseen (Pierre MD, 2021).

– Teva Pharmaceutical (McCuaig, 2024).

———

Next: Flares and Remissions in Psychotic Disorders [In Progress] →

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