Stigmatization of Mental Illness in Society

This study focuses on the stigmatization of mental illness in society and its impact on individuals and society. It explores the concepts of mental health, mental illness, and mental well-being. The study discusses the process of stigmatization, including self-stigmatization and public stigmatization. It also examines the causes and effects of social stigmatization of mental illness. Recommendations are provided to minimize negative social attitudes towards individuals with mental disorders.

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STIGMATIZATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE SOCIETY

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The issue of mental health has been neglected for a very long period of time. However,
situations have been changing globally and due to active participations from the organizations
like World Health Organization, American psychiatric Association, ICD and more, now people
have started to give heed to the aspects related to mental health. Despite this, mental illness still
receives a negative reception from the society and the situation is worse in many underdeveloped
or developing countries. So, this study has focused on how mental illness is stigmatized in
society globally and on the impact it imposes on both society and the people suffering from
mental illness. For that reason, the concepts of mental health, mental illness and mental well
being have been described here. Furthermore, the social reception of mentally ill people has been
explored in this study. In addition, the process of stigmatization of mental illness has been
discussed including two types of stigmatization. On the other hand, the impact of and causes
behind social stigmatization of mental illness have been illuminated further in the study.
Moreover, some recommendations have been given that can be helpful in minimizing the
negative social attitude towards the people facing different kinds of mental disorders.
Before discussing the social reception of people suffering from mental illness, it is
important to know what mental health actually is. According to Galderisi et al. (232), our mental
health encompasses well being of our psychological, emotional and social states. The importance
of mental health relies on the fact that our mental condition affects our daily lives and also our
actions. This implies that mental well being is a kind of holistic wellness that drives our lives in a
way that not only affects our choices but also every stage of our life cycle. It is not necessary that
mental health can only be affected by biological factors or long family histories but also by our
social experiences. One of the most important factors of maintaining a positive mental well being
is to live a stress free life around positive people. There are several categories of mental illness
but all of them somehow create different levels of distress in the lives of the affected people.
However, some of the most common mental illness affecting many people globally
includes depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and dementia. Among these, depression refers to a
kind of mental disorder that affects the way someone acts or feels and gradually makes the
person less interested in participating in the most basic activities like taking a bath or even eating
(World Health Organization 5). One important thing to note here that is the chances of getting
affected by depression are more for the people who suffer from low self esteem throughout their

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lives and are easily stressed (Sowislo and Ulrich 213). This clarifies the fact that society does
have an important role in either increasing or decreasing the chances of getting affected by
mental illness like depression for many people. Similarly, other mental disorders like anxiety
also gets directly affected by the social reception of them while other identified mental disorders
also get affected by social stigmatization in varying degrees based on the severity of the diseases.
There are heaps of misconceptions regarding mental illness that still flows inside the
minds of many people in the world. Most of the people do not know that mental illness is a kind
of diseases just like fever or cold. For that reason, many people and the society in general show a
highly negative reception towards the people who are already fighting with mental disorders
(Ando et al. 479). One of the reasons behind their negative reception is that they think that
mentally ill people disrupt the social order. Maintaining the social order is considered to be one
of the prime responsibilities of every social being and thus the society perceives every unknown
behavior or unusual personality as a threat to that social order.
For that reason, society does not accept the people with mental disorders easily.
However, unlike the society, mental illness does not discriminate. As a result, individuals of
every age have the risk of becoming victims of mental illness. Thus, especially old people face a
lot of challenges from the society and also from their own families and face negligence regarding
identification and treatment of mental disorders (Drapalski et al. 267). The society has a
tendency of showing their negative attitudes towards these people who could have lived
productive lives if they could get a little amount of positive reception from the society. On the
contrary, society shows aggression and sometimes violence towards the people dealing with
mental illness.
These types of negative social reception give birth to different kinds of discrimination
and one of the most common types of discrimination is the process of stigmatizing the people
suffering from mental disorders. This process of stigmatization can be divided into two
categories such as self stigmatization and public stigmatization.
The public stigmatization of mental illness happens when the society, as a collective
group of population, identify the people with mental illness with some irrational negative labels.
These society generated labels are full of discriminatory attitudes and prejudices that are based

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on half knowledge or no knowledge regarding what actually mental illness is. For example, there
are many people who believe that mentally ill people are dangerous or harmful and thus they
should keep a distance from them (Bockting et al. 948). Due to lack of any firm knowledge about
the vast range of mental disorders, the society calls all of them ‘mad’. The term ‘mad’ is itself
derogatory and shows devaluation towards mental illness (Granello and Todd 35). This can be
seen when people use this term randomly to insult or mock any person they dislike.
This shows the casual attitude of the society towards mental health and well being. These
inherent fear and ignorance gives birth to generation of stereotypes. One of the stereotypes
related with being mentally ill is that they are incompetent to live productive lives. Terms like
‘abnormal’ are also used to stigmatize these people that only show how concerned the society is
about being normal (Parcesepe and Leopoldo 391). For that reason, the society views mentally ill
individuals as the ‘other’. This process of ‘othering’ the people suffering from mental illness
shows that the society discriminates them and think that they do not fit in the normal order of the
society. For a very long time, many countries used to demonize mental illness and used to
perceive them as severely harmful social creatures by naming them witch or demons.
This tradition is still continuing in many rural places because of their lack of exposure
towards the implications of mental disorders. This process of public stigmatization mainly
happens due to cultural conditioning. According to Parkes (51), cultural conditioning is process
of manipulating the beliefs, values and prejudices of individuals by the powerful social figures
such as religious leaders, media, peers, politicians and so on. This means that the society, as a
collective mind, controls the way mentally ill people should be treated in the society. As a result,
it becomes tough to eradicate the labels society gives to these people.
This process of public stigmatization gives rise to self stigmatization. According to
Tucker et al. (520), self stigmatization happens when the individuals suffering from mental
illness internalize the negative notions against them within themselves. This occurs due to the
negative social reception of them or because of the public stigmatization of mental illness. As a
result, the people suffering from mental disorders start believing that the society is right about
them. This acceptance can be highly harmful for the well being of those people and the degree of
negative effect is dependent on how negatively the society stigmatizes them. For that reason,
many people with mental disorders like schizophrenia start believing that they are really

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dangerous for others. Thus, they decide to isolate themselves from the society and this increases
the chances of getting more affected by the disorders they have.
As mentioned above, people with low self esteem are prone to mental disorders like
depression. Thus, these public stigmatization decreases their self esteem even so much so that
they constantly struggle with having a stable self image. Self discrimination is another form of
self stigmatization that is generated from fear of self. The journey through public stigmatization
to self stigmatization can be explained from the Differential Association Theory by Sutherland
(Akers 230). According to this theory, social interaction influences individual behavior. So it is
possible that a mentally ill person can start believing that he or she is dangerous not only to the
self but also to others and can indulge in really dangerous behavior in the future.
This process of public stigmatization has many negative impacts on the people with
mental disorders other than giving rise to self stigmatization. All the impacts ultimately increase
the consequences of having mental disorders and affect the mental state of these people in a high
degree. For example, public stigmatization increases the tendency of over generalizing events in
the minds of the mentally ill individuals (Cha et al. 5869). This tendency refers to a process of
unnecessarily generalizing events that are mostly negative. For example, people with mental
disorders like depression can hesitate to participate in any social event if they face any negative
experience while participating into one social event in the past. So, it can be assumed that if they
face social stigmatization at any singular instance then they feel that they can never be accepted
by anyone in the future.
This realization can force them to be isolated from the society and also from their loved
ones because they can perceive them as part of the society. On the other hand, they can suffer
from the phenomenon called ‘Tyranny of Shoulds’ coined by Karen Horney. This Tyranny of
Shoulds can create more stress in the minds of the people with mental disorders for not being
able to conform to normalcy (Freeman 239). As a result, they can grow self-hatred that can give
rise to suicidal tendencies in them (Rüsch et al. 259). This is because a severe sense of guilt can
be found in mainly the people suffering from anxiety and depression that can be triggered by
public stigmatization. This, in turn, can turn into other mental disorders like social anxiety or
psychosomatic disorders like cognitive distortion.

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The process of public stigmatization of mental disorders can generate from the self
referential tendency of social beings. This tendency allows people to put themselves in others’
positions just because they did not go through the situations that those people go through. As a
result, they become unable to show empathy towards the people with mental disorders.
However, this is highly difficult to solve the issue of public stigmatization but this issue
can be minimized at least. Perceiving mental disorders as something demonic or taboo is mainly
seen in people who lack a proper education regarding mental health. So, society needs to be
enlightened with the knowledge of mental illness. On the other hand, each and every person
needs to realize that social support can be a boon for the mental well being of the people affected
by mental illness (Pescosolido 19). This realization can be passed onto them by taking various
initiatives like campaigns especially in the rural areas. Moreover, social empathy towards the
victims of mental disorders can be very helpful for them to lead productive lives (Chronister,
Julie, Chih‐Chin Chou, and Hsin‐Ya Liao 591). Thus, it is important for everyone to be aware of
their social responsibilities towards them.
This study has revolved around the impact of social stigmatization of mental illness. For
that reason, the concepts related to mental health have been briefly discussed. It has been found
out that society has a great role to play either to decrease the symptoms of mental illness or to
increase them. The study also illuminates two types of social stigmatization that ultimately
affects the mental well being of those people. Moreover, it can be said that the situation can be
changed if the society becomes more aware of their roles in the lives of mentally ill people.

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