Textual Analysis of Song Lyrics Adopting a Mental Health Diagnostic Standard as Method
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We are interested in the way that mental illness is represented in rock music lyrics because we believe that it is important that music fans are not misled about mental illness and that prejudice is not supported through misunderstanding the true nature of conditions such as depression and mania. Our idea is that it is those musicians who have had documented mental health issues that are more likely to write about these issues with real insight and greater accuracy. We have used The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-TR, 2000) as the clinical reference to assess the extent to which the depictions cited here are accurate. At this stage we have only cited examples of musicians known to have had mental illness. We hope to extend the research to include a comparison group of artists who use imagery of mental illness for effect and in doing so, only serve to perpetuate damaging social stereotypes and myths about people who are mentally ill.