Germany Debuts 'Mentally Ill' Stuffed Animals

Promising hours of fun for the whole family, a German company has introduced a line of stuffed animals that suffer from psychiatric disorders. There's Dub the turtle, who has severe depression; Sly the snake, who suffers frightening hallucinations; Dolly the sheep/wolf, who has multiple-personality disorder; Kroko the crocodile, who is terrified of water; and Lilo the hippo, who's been obsessed with solving the same wooden jigsaw puzzle for months. The company's founder says: "It started as a bit of a joke with my girlfriend, who has lots of soft toys, and then we thought there could be something in the idea. Children and grownups like their vulnerability and find something in them that gives them a great sense of comfort in helping to heal them." This should go over about as well as bacon sandwiches at a Bar Mitzvah... Funny isn't it? No...

A depressed turtle.
A delusional snake.
A paranoid crocodile.
A sheep with multiple personality disorder.
A hippo with autism.

At first glance, you might think these are cute. But go further and you'll learn that these furry animals are stuffed with stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness.

parapluesch.com - a European toy company - is selling these toys with the tag line "Psychiatry for Abused Toys". On the website, you can play an online game at "The Asylum" and give "treatment" to the toy of your choice. But be prepared for stereotyped crazy behavior, outdated and incorrect diagnostic labels, hallucinogenic drug reactions and the always insulting puppet-sock therapy. Make sure you see the "no-hanging" suicide policy wall sign in the community room. Insensitive. Distasteful. Stigmatizing.

Several blogs have picked up on this story - so you might be hearing about this in mainstream media soon. I'm no stick in the mud. I do enjoy humor. But this stuff needs to stop.

Thoughts?

Posted via email from uselessdesires