What is Stigma?

“The word stigma referred originally to a mark or brand on Greek slaves, clearly separating them from free men.”

-from “Stigma in psychiatry” by Alison J Gray, MRCPsych

“Advances in neuroscience, technology and research sophistication have greatly increased understanding of mental illnesses and improved the treatment of these disorders. However, there are also important psychosocial aspects of mental illness that play a significant role in recovery from these conditions. One set of these factors involves the prejudice and discrimination, often referred to as ‘stigma’, faced by people when others learn that they have been diagnosed with, and/or treated for, a mental disorder.”

-from”Stigma as a barrier to recovery from mental illness” by Otto F. Wahl

“Treatments have been developed and tested to successfully reduce the symptoms and disabilities of many mental illnesses. Unfortunately, people distressed by these illnesses often do not seek out services or choose to fully engage in them. One factor that impedes care seeking and undermines the service system is mental illness stigma.”

-from “The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care”

1. Patrick W. Corrigan Illinois Institute of Technology
2. Benjamin G. Druss Emory University
3. Deborah A. Perlick Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, New York

“Stigma may influence how a psychiatric diagnosis is accepted, whether treatment will be adhered to and how people with mental illness function in the world.”

-from “Stigma: the feelings and experiences of 46 people with mental illness. Qualitative study.” by Sokratis Dinos, Scott Stevens, Marc Serfaty, Scott Weich, Michael King

“The extent to which mental health consumers encounter stigma in their daily lives is a matter of substantial importance for their recovery and quality of life. This article summarizes the results of a nationwide survey of 1,301 mental health consumers concerning their experience of stigma and discrimination. Survey results and followup interviews with 100 respondents revealed experience of stigma from a variety of sources, including communities, families, churches, coworkers, and mental health caregivers. The majority of respondents tended to try to conceal their disorders and worried a great deal that others would find out about their psychiatric status and treat them unfavorably. They reported discouragement, hurt, anger, and lowered self-esteem as results of their experiences, and they urged public education as a means for reducing stigma. Some reported that involvement in advocacy and speaking out when stigma and discrimination were encountered helped them to cope with stigma.”

-from “Mental Health Consumers’ Experience of Stigma” by Otto F. Wahl, Ph.D.

“The stigma attached to mental illness often leads to underestimation, underdiagnosis and undertreatment of mental disorders. A lack of knowledge of causes, symptoms and treatment options of mental disorders in the public and a lack of personal contact with affected individuals can result in prejudices and negative attitudes towards them–and subsequently in stigmatization and discrimination. Human beings suffering from mental illness often are recognized as ‘strangers’. But, social-psychological and philosophical analysis of the recognition of ‘strangeness’ in mentally ill individuals as one of the main predictors for social distance towards them, shows, that the other person only remains a stranger if the available cognitive patterns of interpretation fail. Society must provide the people living in it with the interpretational patterns to take away the recognized strangeness from mentally ill persons and thus making him, or her, an accepted other member.”

-from “Stigmatization, social distance and exclusion because of mental illness: The individual with mental illness as a ‘stranger’” by Anja Esther Baumann

“There is some evidence that the diagnostic label does influence people’s attitudes; students were offered vignettes identical except for the person being described as having cancer or schizophrenia. Those with schizophrenia were perceived as less desirable as a friend and less able to function in the community¹². Changing the label changed people’s perceptions and expectations.

People tend to think: ‘Labels bad, no labels good,’ so get rid of labels and there will be no more stigma and discrimination. This is too simple; we cannot just get rid of all labels and psychiatric terminology. A precise language is necessary for clinical communication and for comparison of research results. Certainly people have strong negative expectations of those with conditions such as schizophrenia, but labelling cannot be the whole story. Watch people’s reactions to someone shuffling along the street like a stereotypical ‘chronic psychiatric patient’. Even though the crowd do not know the specific label, the patient is avoided and socially rejected.”

-from “Stigma in psychiatry” by Alison J Gray, MRCPsych

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