The Continuing Augmentation of Anxiety Disorders in the United States as Represented in Dear Evan Hansen

NABIL BAKRI, Achmad Munjid, M.A., Ph.D.

2020 | Tesis | MAGISTER PENGKAJIAN AMERIKA

Majalah Time melaporkan bahwa sekitar 18% total populasi Amerika Serikat menderita Anxiety Disorders. Anxiety Disorders tidak hanya menyerang orang dewasa tetapi dapat juga menyerang anak-anak dan remaja. Pementasan Dear Evan Hansen yang dirilis pada 2015 dan adaptasi novelnya yang dirilis pada 2018 dipuji karena dianggap mampu menangkap isu kontemporer kalangan remaja Amerika Serikat yakni meningkatnya angka Anxiety Disorders. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana Dear Evan Hansen menggambarkan persoalan Anxiety Disorders dan bagaimana penggambaran tersebut berpotensi besar untuk memfasilitasi pembaca agar mampu memahami isu Anxiety Disorders di Amerika Serikat. Di bawah naungan New American Studies, penelitian ini menggunakan teori psikoanalisis untuk mengungkapkan penggambaran isu Anxiety Disorders dalam Dear Evan Hansen dan sosiologi sastra untuk menentukan korelasi antara penggambaran isu dalam karya sastra dengan isu nyata di Amerika Serikat. Penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa Dear Evan Hansen menggambarkan meningkatnya angka Anxiety Disorders di Amerika Serikat melalui empat faktor yang berbeda: keluarga, kepribadian, lingkungan, dan media sosial. Faktor-faktor ini dibenarkan oleh data resmi yang dirilis oleh CDC yang mengungkapkan bahwa permasalahan keluarga, kepribadian, dan lingkungan memang menjadi penentu kuat munculnya Anxiety Disorders. Namun, selain sesuai dengan data dari CDC, Dear Evan Hansen menggambarkan satu faktor kontemporer yang juga berpengaruh kuat dalam isu Anxiety Disorders yaitu ketergantungan terhadap media sosial.

In May 2018, Time reported that approximately 18% of the total US population suffer from anxiety disorders which led the US as the world's leader in anxiety epidemic. Anxiety disorders are not unique to adults and can happen to children and teenagers. The stage musical Dear Evan Hansen and its novel adaptation were released in 2015 and 2018, respectively, to a massive success. Dear Evan Hansen is highly praised for its capability in capturing the contemporary problem experienced by young-adults in the US that is the gleaming hands of anxiety. This research means to disclose how Dear Evan Hansen portrays anxiety disorders and how the portrayals can potentially facilitate readers to comprehend the phenomena of anxiety disorders in the US. Under the notion of the New American Studies, this research utilizes psychoanalysis to dismantle the portrayals of anxiety disorders in Dear Evan Hansen and sociology of literature to pinpoint the connections between the work of fiction and its correlations with reality. This research finds that Dear Evan Hansen portrays the augmentation of teenage social anxiety disorder through four distinct factors: family, the self, society, and social media. These four factors are backed up by real data provided by the CDC. Dear Evan Hansen helps pinpoint the four factors and provides images that illuminate its readers on the topic of anxiety disorders among American youths. The narrative of Dear Evan Hansen is in line with data provided by the CDC as familial, societal, and personality matters are established as influential factors in the spark of anxiety disorders. However, the narrative also suggests the more contemporary matter as one of the factors in the rise of anxiety disorders which is the advancement, ubiquity, and eventual reliance on social media.

Kata Kunci : Dear Evan Hansen, social media, anxiety disorder, psychoanalysis, sociology of literature