What TikTok’s self-diagnosis trend misses about mental health

HANNAH FRASURE

Self-diagnosis is trending, with social media deemed the “psychiatrist’s couch” of Gen Z. Countless posts suggest that almost any mental experience is a sign of a disorder. On Instagram, for example, 294,000 posts fall under #ADHDProblems as of March 5, 2023.

A popular video of Fiona Apple’s “awkward” acceptance speech at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards posted on Feb. 13, 2023 by an anonymous TikTok user who purports she has autism. But no public record exists anywhere regarding her having been diagnosed with it.

Better yet: If you’ve ever been so bored in class that your teacher’s voice blurs out — which is everyone — and you begin to picture things to distract yourself, another popular, anonymous TikTok armchair psychologist claims you have ADHD.

“Unfortunately, there is no cure … please get a psychologist; this isn’t normal,” they state, noting all of us also have “maladaptive daydreaming” which “is not considered a disorder (but it should be).”

And lastly, my personal favorite … This popular TikTok video from Feb. 2, 2023 features a Gen Z influencer lip-syncing to a spedup Paramore song. He switches in a matter of seconds from throwing his shirt on the ground, to flashing what’s supposed to be a flirtatious smile, to angrily pointing at his viewer, to giving the camera one last quick smile before transitioning to a pose that one is supposed to guess is … a howling werewolf.

But why is that relevant?

The caption reads, “Bipolar hits different,” though he never mentions on any of his platforms whether he’s been diagnosed.(And even if he has, his depiction has received criticism in the comments from people who allege that they have received the diagnosis.

Yet even as this trend may help to destigmatize mental illness, we shouldn’t be led to believe that diagnoses are a key to solving the United States’ mental health crisis. This conclusion takes for granted the impact of social norms and systems on mental health — and how prevailing psychiatric explanations for mental illness have at times unscientifically incorporated prevailing cultural attitudes into a diagnostic framework.

Here are just a few historical examples that show sometimes the purpose of diagnoses, rather than to empower people, has been to control them. At one point, enslaved people in the United States. who rightfully desired their freedom were once considered to have a mental illness: “drapetomania.”

Psychiatrists around the world also influenced their countries’ 20th-century sterilization practices by identifying who was too mentally “unfit” to have children — around 60,000 people in the United States, for example, were victims of this law.

Meanwhile, one current prevailing paradigm for understanding all mental illnesses is through the biomedical model, premised upon the idea that an individual’s biology shares the biggest responsibility for mental illness.

But it’s not without its critics, as voiced by this neuroscientist in an article published online in December 2022 in an established neuropsychiatry journal.

“Even though such a reductionist model is still frequently encountered in the research and clinical literature, it does reflect an outdated view of biology. Contemporary biology … is also the analysis of the interactions between neurobiological systems and developmental experiences, interpersonal relationship and social context.”

Mental health interventions on an individual level — brought on

Printing exhibition connects local community and 5Cs

by a diagnosis — are necessary, but just as necessary are solutions at a societal level that address the problems creating the mental suffering in the first place. This can be said of any mental illness and does not require biological influences to be discredited. This is what Gen Z must understand whenever encountering the deluge of Fiona-Apple-and-maladaptivedaydream-type posts: while they may destigmatize experiences deemed to be a mental illness or disorder, they do not challenge the problematic history that diagnoses are rooted in.

Here’s one example in which diagnoses can be accompanied by a shift in thinking about the societal role of mental health.

Some psychiatrists are reconsidering whether to reclassify borderline personality disorder (BPD) as a type of posttraumatic stress disorder due to its correlation with severe abuse. If the reclassification happens, to end the suffering caused by BPD would entail addressing the disorder’s root cause — the social factors permitting environments where such abuse occurs — on top of individual treatment. Mental illness is more than just the sum of an individual’s unwell parts.

The mental health crisis requires collective solutions. While diagnoses may help us identify biological roots of suffering, they have historically neglected societal roots. Lasting change depends on the efforts of community members, policymakers, politicians and researchers from fields outside of medicine, too, to develop comprehensive approaches promoting mental wellness.

Hannah Frasure PO ’24 often sits around pretending to be The Thinker is a philosophy major who began as a neuroscience major.

5C students and Claremont community members recently joined forces to create a printmaking exhibition, titled RePrinting Claremont, which opened at the Garner House on Saturday, March 4. The exhibition weaved together Claremont past, present and future through Claremont Heritage’s Special Collections and student artwork to display the shared roots of the Claremont community.

Claremont Heritage is a non-profit organization focused on keeping community traditions alive through researching, recording and sharing. The Garner House, where the exhibition is located, functions as a community gathering space in the heart of old Claremont at Memorial Park.

“Claremont Heritage turned the former garage into an exhibition and conference space,” David Shearer, executive director at Claremont Heritage, said.

Marina Shishkina SC ’25, a student curator and employee at Claremont Heritage, began working at the organization this past year, when she discovered these special collections in their archives.

“This amazing art was all just tucked away,” Shishkina said.

The space displays prints of local legends within the art community, such as Millard Sheets and Phil Paradise, who inspired many of the art movements in the area.

“Sheets essentially founded the Scripps [College] art department in 1932 and brought in working artists to teach at Scripps,” Shearer said.

Sheets’ legacy continues today through the Scripps Fine Arts Foundation, which gives scholarships to Scripps art students each year.

“I was looking at the art in the archives,” said Shishkina, “and I was like, ‘what the heck, this needs to be shown.’”

RePrinting Claremont also highlights the prints of student artists. A mission of this exhibit is to shed light on the legacy of these local artists within the Claremont community and ultimately how these sources function as inspiration for present and future student artists.

“The student art strengthens the connection to the greater community and is a continuation of the art legacy that comes from the college,” Shearer said.

The exhibition displays several printmaking methods: serigraph, lithograph, etching, collagraph and monoprint, designed to “reflect the diversity of [Claremont’s] art community,” according to Shishkina.

Mel Gross SC ’24, an attendee of the showcase opening, partic- ularly enjoyed Phil Paradise’s 1940 lithograph “Moon Mad,” which depicts a group of horses in a field at night. It’s one of the oldest pieces at the show.

“I love the style of it, it’s almost like a dreamscape.” Gross said. “It’s very fitting of the intergenerational theme of the event.”

The showcase also features works inspired by the natural spaces within the Claremont community.

“The exhibition provokes this homey atmosphere,” Shishkina said. “You can really feel Claremont as you work your way through the space.”

Interestingly, this showcase tells a story of artistic craft. For instance, the structure of the exhibition reflects the extensive nature of art cultivation. The showcase presents the first drafts, art tools, print blocks and the printmaking press.

Kesi Jackson SC ’23 conceived the set up as conducive to the narrative and linear flow of the exhibition.

“It’s amazing to see the same techniques being used throughout these times,” Jackson said.

The framework of this exhibition aims to reimagine gallery spaces through this event.

“We’ve formulated this exhibition to detach from the white-cube, typical setup,” Shishkina said.

Moreover, the central theme of this showcase is to foster dialogue and a sense of community in Claremont. The curators of this space aim to build bridges for this connection to be possible.

“We’ve placed sofas in the center of this space to signal conversation and comfort with one another,” Shishkina said.

Similarly, Shearer conceives this environment construction as valuable for building relationships.

“It creates the experience of a domestic environment,” Shearer said. “It also allows for people to comfortably interact with each other.”

In essence, the curators hope to see attendees of the event foster relationships and allow the transmission of knowledge across generational lines. They hope to unite the local public and the colleges through these art forms.

“The crowd and experience of the event felt so natural,” Gross said. “There was this sense of closeness present in the space.”

For Shishkina, working on this exhibition has fostered a sense of home in Claremont for her through building relationships and connections with the community.

“Recognizing the history of this new home of mine has been something really special,” Shishkina said. “I hope that people come into the space to begin a new conversation and form a new connection and understanding of Claremont.”

The exhibition continues for community visitation Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m. or by appointment through March 24.

How Bong Joon-Ho transcended the subtitle barrier and put international films in the American mainstream

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

In 2020, Bong Joon-Ho said these words when accepting the Best International Film award at the Golden Globes. The movie that won this award, “Parasite,” would later go on to win three Academy Awards, making history as the first international film to earn the Best Picture honor. Naturally, audience members like me were confused. How could a Korean movie with social commentary beat out a war flick, an adaptation of “Little Women” and a race car movie, all while triumphing at the American box office?

To the average observer, “Parasite” was a risk for American production companies. Neon, the United States and Canadian distributor of “Parasite,” took a gamble on a foreign film, reaping the benefits of raving audiences and positive critical reception. However, viewing “Parasite” as an isolated film and not as a product of Bong’s extensive filmography discounts the work that he and many other international directors have done to reach these milestones.

“Parasite” is a culmination of Bong’s efforts in both Korean and American filmmaking. By comparing Bong’s dystopian science-fiction thriller “Snowpiercer” (2013) — which stars a majority American cast and was distributed by the Weinstein Company — with one of his earliest Korean films “Memories of Murder” (2017), we can see how Bong used his understanding of both countries’ cultural themes to transcend the barriers of language and subtitles in films such as “Parasite.”

At their core, both films are commentaries about violence, class and authority. Bong directs “Memories of Murder” from a strictly historical lens, telling the story of a real-life Korean serial killer in the late 1980s. Through color grading techniques and a moody soundtrack, Bong creates an atmosphere which transports viewers to a historical period of paranoia and great fear. He portrays police officers that engage in both brutality and benevolence, having faith that his viewer can spot the nuances in each character’s psyche.

“Snowpiercer” is a much more direct story, depicting revolution in a post-apocalyptic cautionary tale.

As the entire film is set on a train divided by class, Bong restricts the movement of his characters to a forward or backward direction, creating a linear narrative with clear moral boundaries. The film is clearly a story about justice against unjust authority — which is ironic considering it was distributed by the Weinstein Company.

“Memories of Murder” critiques authority in a less apparent way — the Korean viewer is implored to resist punitive answers and grapple with the unsolved case depicted (the murderer later confessed in 2019). Characters in “Snowpiercer” are eager for revenge and are consistently engaging in violent conflict with their oppressors and each other. In both films, Bong centers the people left behind, whether that be through history or the injustices of the present. While “Memories of Murder” depicts victims and detectives that are left in time, “Snowpiercer” follows the lower class that is left behind in the name of human growth and expansion.

Although these films both use character blocking and set design to articulate Bong’s vision of the past and future, his methods of storytelling differ in drastic ways. For instance, unlike “Snowpiercer,” we rarely see direct depictions of violence in “Memories of Murder.” Bong instead uses the killer’s place in Korean national consciousness to elongate feelings of disgust and dread.

On the other hand, “Snowpiercer” is enveloped in violence, as leaders in the higher and lower classes are killed almost every minute. In a way, Bong’s direction reflects the excess of the ruling class in “Snowpiercer,” which had a budget 20 times the size of “Memories of Murder.”

By directing grandiose action sequences and CGI surroundings, Bong is completely aware of his story’s scale and the narrative beats that will resonate with American audiences.

Perhaps Bong is signaling to Korean audiences that violence must be justified while showing American audiences that violence may be the only means to overthrow oppressors in dire situations. Pair this commentary with the history of war in Korea and the tendency for Americans to discount radical movements in favor of political civility, and we can begin to see the distinct contexts in which these films were created.

When watching these films, I must say that my viewing experiences were biased. As an American film consumer, I have been jaded by the saturation of what Martin Scorcese calls “theme park” rides, otherwise known as superhero movies, throughout the film industry. It seems to me that American films have become less nuanced, perhaps indicating that American audiences have become less sophisticated and open-minded. So, naturally, when I saw that “Snowpiercer” starred Chris Evans who plays Captain America, I was already anticipating the film’s failure and cursing the

American studios that meddled in Bong’s creative vision.

My mind changed after watching “Snowpiercer.” The film snobbery I previously displayed was thrown out of my metaphorical window, and I realized that both films achieve different goals while contributing to Bong’s directorial growth. I had stopped trying to prove that American film goers were inferior and instead started to analyze Bong’s unique approach to each of his films. His ability to find success in both domestic and international markets is a feat of its own, but his work in “Snowpiercer” and “Memories of Murder” also opened up the opportunity for him to make “Parasite,” a film that is accessible to all audiences.