What Stranger Things’ Max Mayfield teaches us about mental illness
*Warning for Spoilers if you haven’t watched Season 4 of Stranger Things and Trigger Warning for Death, Depression & Suicide Ideation
The latest season of Stranger Things was a huge social media sensation and you might be no stranger to the show even if you haven’t watched an episode. Ever heard of “Chrissy, Wake Up” as you’re scrolling through your TikTok FYP?
This season of Netflix’s fan-favourite original brings more than just viral memes but a fresh new take on looking at mental illness, using monsters and horror as an allegory. Although the connection between horror and mental illness is hardly novel, Stranger Things manages to walk the fine line of drawing empathy for the characters with mental illness while portraying their struggles in a way that is both terrifying but not in a stereotypical way.
1. Vecna: The Voices in Your Head
More often than not, whenever horror is associated with mental illness, the villain tends to also be the character who is also mentally ill. Take, for example, American Psycho or Split.
“In the movies, people with mental illness are literally seen as monsters and dehumanized,” says Barry Katz, PhD, a forensic and clinical psychologist at the West Essex Psychology Center in Livingston, New Jersey.
However, this season of Stranger Things introduces a mental illness through its new villain: Vecna. The Dungeons and Dragon lore reveal Vecna’s modus operandi to be a curse in which he inflicts involuntary hallucinations and apparitions onto individuals who already suffer from some kind of trauma or mentally ill individuals.
When his victims encounter these hallucinations that often force them to recount their traumatic memories, their bodies are left in stasis: they cannot move or even see what’s happening to the world around them beyond what Vecna wants them to see.
Vecna may be a monster from the Upside Down, but his curse sounds strikingly similar to certain symptoms of mental illness. Take for example how he approaches one of the main characters: Max Mayfield. Preying on her survivor’s guilt following her brother’s death in the previous season, Vecna comes to Max in the form of Billy and tells her: “[L]ate at night, you have sometimes wished to follow me. Follow me into death. That is why I am here, Max, to end your suffering once and for all."
Vecna’s voice is not only malicious and manipulative but he also sounds like plausible suicidal thoughts that Max might have had. The horrors of Vecna are not his monstrous physique but rather his uncanny ability to turn a victim’s mind against themselves. And in this case, Max is not portrayed as the stereotypical villain. Rather, she is seen as a victim of her mental health conditions, both her pre-existing symptoms as well as those Vecna inflicts upon her.
2. Going into Isolation & Making Bucket Lists
While Vecna’s character is an external projection of negative thoughts and hallucinations, Stranger Things also goes on to highlight the actions and steps taken by individuals which exacerbate their mental health.
In the opening episode of the season, before Max was revealed to be a possible suspect of Vecna’s curse, she had already been pulling herself away from her clique. One of her friends, Lucas, attempts to approach her, noting how it feels “like you’re not even here anymore. It’s like you’re a ghost or something.” When he does so, she snaps at him and pushes him away, telling him that sometimes “people just change.”
Subsequently, when she finds out that she is likely to be Vecna’s next target, she starts writing “goodbye” letters to her loved ones and passing it on to them.
It’s moments like this that reveal the plights of people with mental illness. One of the common symptoms of a number of mental illnesses is isolation because people feel overwhelmed by their negative thoughts and start to wonder if they might be a burden to the people they try to reach out to. Otherwise, they also sometimes feel like others may not fully understand their conditions and struggles, a sentiment Max seems to be experiencing in the show. Max is shown to be hesitant to open up, especially because her struggles stem from these complex supernatural events from past seasons and her complicated relationship with her late stepbrother.
As she battles her fate, Lucas attempts to reach out to her yet again, reminding her: “I don’t want a letter. Just talk to me. To your friends. We’re right here. I’m right here.” Unfortunately, his pleas fall on deaf ears, signifying how overwhelming and difficult it can be to let others in even though one knows that they are willing to help.
3. Finding Gratitude through Happy Memories, Music and Community
In a pivotal scene that is constantly referenced on social media, Vecna’s curse finally catches up with Max. When all hope seems lost, her friends make a breakthrough about Vecna’s weakness: music. Upon playing Max’s favourite song, she finds solace in the happy memories she had once shared with her friends before she finally manages to break free from the curse and escape him.
The cinematography of this scene is breathtaking, with music and mise-en-scene capturing both the devastation and hope simultaneously. And it is a scene that anyone who can empathise with the struggles of mental illness will resonate with. As we watch Max break free from the seemingly impossible grasp of Vecna, we see ourselves fighting those terrible days when it feels like our minds have taken full control over our bodies. Where we almost lose the hope to go on. Until by some miracle, we don’t.
These moments vary for every individual struggling with mental illness: for some of them, they break out of this cycle through a sense of community while others find release through music and art. Regardless, the common thread here, that ties with what Stranger Things shows us, is finding hope in the things that make us happy. Just as Max holds onto her friends and her music, we too may recall days when a loved one’s words lingered in our minds as we almost gave up, poignant lyrics of a song that helped us through tough times or even listening to songs that lift our spirits.
Stranger Things’ newest season not only captures the conventional darkness depicted about mental illness but the potential hope one can find from its experience too, given the right resources and help. It reminds us that we are more than the voices that haunt our minds.
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References
https://www.psycom.net/mental-health-wellbeing/horror-movies-mental-health-stigma