Dr. Eric Bender

Media gives people ideas.

So to get ideas about mental health, let's make sure they're

Good ideas or real ideas?

I think it's going in a very good direction.

When I first started doing work with media and mental health, it was back in 2008, 2009.

And at that time, I had teachers telling me, why are you doing this?

This is a waste of time.

I was asked by ABC News, can you talk about Darth Vader?

What personality disorder Darth Vader might have?

So I was talking about borderline traits and histrionic traits with some colleagues.

And one of my teachers I really liked, he's like, does...

Darth Vader, borderline personality.

What is so stupid?

But it's not.

It's an entrance to talking about mental health, which even though we're going in good direction, it's still very scary for people to talk about.

So if we can talk about characters, movies, and TV shows they like, then they can start asking and learning more.

I think if I'm looking at,

But just to be clear, do you mean people looking at a TV show and saying, this is how it's done and this is how I expect psychiatrists to be?

So that's a great question.

So if we start with that place, I'm often asked, what do you think of this person, this public figure, this political figure, this actor, this actress, you name it?