SKAMlig ohälsa : En studie i hur psykisk ohälsa representeras i webbserien SKAM

Sammanfattning: This essay examines how the Norwegian web series SKAM presents mental illness; how discourse structures concerning mental illnesses are consolidated and challenged. Our analysis examines seasons one, two and three. The essay is based on Stuart Hall's representation theory, Michel Foucault's theories about madness, and Norman Fairclough's discourse theory. The starting point of the methodology used in this study is a critical discourse analysis based on Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model. The analysis primarily examines three levels: textual level, dialogues of the characters, and visual expression apparent in the scenography of the series. We analyze how the format is used, how the story is distributed through web and social media, and how this relates to a larger social context in addition to how the narrative of mental illness is inevitably part of cultural, institutional, and social order. Our findings reveal that SKAM reinforces cultural beliefs about mental ill health by representing mental illnesses as taboo and stigmatized as well as as being a problem that is (primarily) at the individual level. Mental illness in the series is presented as a threat to community norms where mental ill health is presented at an individual level and not as a product of society's constructed desires or structural problems. The series presents very limited help for the mentally ill. The absence of acceptance of and cure for the mentally ill causes them to wind up outside society and they have greater difficulty contributing in manners similar to those of healthy, working people.