Culture Shock - The Psychological Challenges and Media Neglect of HIV/AIDS

World AIDS Day was yesterday. Events were staged all around the globe as the day aimed to promote fundraising and increase awareness for people living with HIV/AIDS. There were academic talks in London, France’s First Lady Carla Bruni -Sarkozy ( who lost her brother Virginio to AIDS three years ago) made a plea for more to be done to help prevent mothers passing the disease to their babies; R‘n’B superstar Alicia Keys performed a benefit concert in New York that was streamed live on YouTube, and social networking site Facebook combined with the brand (RED) who aim to fight against AIDS in Africa.

In the context of all these important campaigning activities, it is interesting to consider what the general public think about HIV/AIDS given its popular media coverage. We are undoubtedly confronted with intense but ultimately short-lived media frenzies when celebrities are associated with HIV/AIDS. In this regard, one thinks perhaps most notably of the charismatic Queen front man Freddie Mercury, but also of actor Rock Hudson and artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who was well known in more popular circles as a close friend of legendary punk singer and poetess Patti Smith.

Perhaps even more prominently, HIV/AIDS went through a relatively intense period of coverage in Hollywood a few years ago. Larry Clark’s highly controversial Kids, the critically acclaimed TV mini-series Angels in America, and most notably Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, with Tom Hanks’ brilliantly sensitive, Oscar-winning portrayal of sufferer Andrew Beckett, all served to bring the condition and the fate of those afflicted to a wider audience. However, one struggles to think of more recent examples than these. The endeavours of World AIDS Day certainly seem to give us a reason to ask why HIV/AIDS has fallen off the popular agenda in recent years.

The intense research on HIV/AIDS has focused especially on adjustment and coping with the disease, and interrelations between physical and psychological symptoms. However, one shortcoming is that much of this research predates the 1995 introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment (HAART).

HAART made it possible to define HIV as a ‘chronic’ condition, characterised by cycles of wellness and illness, rather than one associated with early death. Despite this welcome effect that ensures many people are living longer with the disease, psychologists have argued for much of this decade that there are still significant and poorly understood psychological and social challenges faced by those with the illness.

So concerns have gradually shifted from the physical aspect of the condition to its psychological aspects. Modern medicine has undoubtedly made HIV/AIDS a far more physically manageable illness. However, the psychological burden, the trauma and the stigma unquestionably remain, raising the important and difficult question of how this should be addressed. We might think of the media and popular culture as an important vehicle to raise awareness and ultimately tackle these psychological and social problems. However, in recent years it has been failing on this front. One of the questions we could be asking after World AIDS Day is why?

The media is reliant on an audience to sell its publications and watch its channels. Perhaps HIV/AIDS had its day in the media spotlight a few years ago and those in the corridors of power worry about boring the audience. There certainly seems to be a general trend for the media to fixate heavily on medical conditions for a while and then forget them. Of course, if sufferers of any illness feel their condition has been forgotten after such initial exposure, this can have the unfortunate effect of adding to the psychological burden.

There is a new wave of ‘positive’ psychologists, led by the renowned and influential American psychologist Martin Seligman, aiming to address these psychological and social challenges. Seligman has characterized positive psychology as ‘learning from human strengths’. This has been understood in stark contrast to psychology’s earlier preoccupations with human suffering and illness. Notable researchers now think that such an approach can be fruitful in relation to coping with chronic illnesses like HIV. 

A contemporary example of how this approach is being used in relation to HIV is an exciting nationwide study for women with HIV/AIDS, based in South London. Lead researcher and project coordinator Anna Ferguson is currently investigating the inner strengths that women draw on in coping with their HIV. Her research could prove vital by informing health care workers how to benefit other female HIV sufferers.

This approach should be welcome progress for all concerned by the problem of HIV/AIDS. If only the popular media could highlight the problem again, such developments could reach the widest possible audience.

Simon Riches

For further information on World AIDS Day:
www.worldaidsday.org
For further information on (RED):
www.joinred.com
Anna Ferguson is currently recruiting women with HIV who are over 18 years old and living in the UK. They will be required to complete a short questionnaire. For more on her research and information about how to take part in her study:
www.hivresourceresearch.co.uk