Mental Health and Mental Illness through Literature and the Arts

Mental health experts believe that globally, even before COVID-19, more than one billion people had a diagnosable mental disorder. The numbers and intensity have only increased in the years since the onset of the pandemic. And yet the biases and misconceptions surrounding mental illness, not to mention the dehumanization and abuse in many communities of individuals with a mental illness, remains acute. This course uses literature and the arts to help students learn more about some of the prevalent biases, misconceptions, myths, and stigmas against individuals with mental illness and how these biases could be (and in the past have been) ameliorated. For complete and current details about this Harvard Extension course, see the description in the DCE Course Search.