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So I watched the Cecil Hotel doc on Netflix and it's so clear to me that people do NOT understand the ways bipolar disorder/psychosis work. Saying "Elisa Lam's behaviour makes no sense!" implies that the internal logic of psychosis "makes sense" to the external world.
If you've experienced psychosis, you know that there is an internal logic to psychosis, which makes you watch the elevator video in a completely different way. If Lam was feeling paranoid, and had delusions about being chased or targeted, those thoughts would have *felt real*
More real than her observable reality from an outside perspective, in which she went to a bookstore, then came back to her room, accidentally pressed a button that kept the elevator doors open for 2 mins, didn't realize it, then wandered away and ended up in a water tank.
If she felt very strongly that she was in danger, that someone was following her, perhaps wanting to harm her, that she needed to hide, it makes sense from the interior logic of psychosis that she would perhaps run to the roof, then climb into a water tank to hide.
But because we all demonize those with serious mental health issues - particularly those that deal with psychosis - there is no understanding of the way psychosis works, or ways that people can engage with those in a psychotic state to encourage them to agree to get help.
This leads to "solutions" such as putting Elisa Lam in a separate hotel room from other guests when she was exhibiting behaviour that could be deemed "inappropriate." Of course, those are not solutions at all - evidenced by what eventually happened to Elisa Lam.
Isolating people with severe mental illness from those who are neurotypical doesn't help the person who is most vulnerable and sick. It only helps those who are neurotypical by keeping them away from the inconvenience of living alongside/witnessing serious mental illness.
Which brings us to Skid Row, and the ways that Los Angeles as an institution has treated those who are dealing with homelessness - many of whom have serious mental illness and/or addiction issues: by pushing them into the confines of Skid Row and isolating them.
Using city by-laws to push people who are dealing with homelessness, addictions, mental illness, poverty and/or a combination of those things out of specific parts of a city to give the impression the city is "nice" AKA free of the effects of colonialism/capitalism continues.
This, to me, points to not only the inadequacy of mental health services and the continued demonization of people who deal with serious mental illness, but also the failures of colonialism and capitalism to reckon with their effects.
I wish that the documentary talked a bit more about the treatment of those with mental illness, and the ways that capitalism sets up ways of dealing with it that get repeated over and over.
For example, The Cecil Hotel employees treated Elisa Lam the same way that L.A. treats residents of Skid Row, despite knowing that this treatment doesn't help since they're right there, dealing with the fallout of this treatment.
In any case, I do think the documentary does a good job of showing how people would rather make up fantastical conspiracies about murderers recreating plots of movies than reckon with the reality of psychosis and our society's inability to help those dealing with it.
Largely, in my opinion, because those dealing with psychosis often cannot contribute to capitalism and be "good consumers," which means their value to capitalism is very low, and therefore their humane treatment isn't prioritized.
