Portray [people with mental illness] sympathetically, and portray them in all the richness and depth of their experience as people, and not as diagnoses.

Source: "A Tale of Mental Illness -- From the Inside." TEDGlobal 2012. Jun. 2012. Conference Presentation. Additional Information: This quote by mental health law scholar and schizophrenia sufferer Elyn Saks is directed at the entertainment industry and the press. Saks says that these groups should treat people with mental illness with more empathy and realism; that is, TV, movies, etc., should show people with mental illness as being the complex, multifaceted individuals that they are in real life, instead of looking down on mental illness sufferers or characterizing them as if are their illness. The quote is from Saks' 2012 TED Talk about her personal experience of mental illness and the psychiatric care industry. Watch the full TED Talk here: Elyn Saks - A Tale of Mental Illness -- From the Inside  

“A Tale of Mental Illness — From the Inside.” TEDGlobal 2012. Jun. 2012. Conference Presentation.