aquamirage:

I’m interested in possibly starting, I guess “project” would be the most appropriate term, but really a “list”, involving portrayals of mental illness in popular fiction. 

Specifically, in examining the very few MI characters, whether their illness is textually stated or heavily implied, permanent or temporary, who do exist - and who are treated as three-dimensional human beings with dignity.

Maybe not perfectly, but who at least can be looked at and said to be mostly positive*, not punished by the narrative, given plotlines and goals and personality traits that define them outside their illness. 

Bitch Magazine did a great series a while back covering this topic more broadly, but outside of like, TV Tropes there doesn’t seem to be any kind of substantial record of these characters or stories. And I know there are stories being forgotten, narratives people may not have heard of because they’re more obscure or the character is minor or not written in English, or a million other reasons.

The danger in asking this is how subjective this question is. A character I find offensive, for example, might have been spot-on for another person or offered them comfort, and I don’t want to undermine anybody’s personal experience. So pretty much my guideline ~*~questions to think about~*~, for now, are these: 

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Did you get the autistic boy from “With the Light” yet?