Too similar, too different? The paradoxical dualism of psychiatric stigma

TY - JOUR

T1 - Too similar, too different?

T2 - The paradoxical dualism of psychiatric stigma

AU - Gergel, Tania Louise

PY - 2014/8

Y1 - 2014/8

N2 - Challenges to psychiatric stigma fall between a rock and a hard place. Decreasing one prejudice may inadvertently increase another. Emphasising similarities between mental illness and ‘ordinary’ experience to escape the fear-related prejudices associated with the imagined ‘otherness' of persons with mental illness risks conclusions that mental illness indicates moral weakness and the loss of any benefits of a medical model. An emphasis on illness and difference from normal experience risks a response of fear of the alien. Thus, a ‘likeness-based’ and ‘unlikeness-based’ conception of psychiatric stigma can lead to prejudices stemming from paradoxically opposing assumptions about mental illness. This may create a troubling impasse for anti-stigma campaigns.

AB - Challenges to psychiatric stigma fall between a rock and a hard place. Decreasing one prejudice may inadvertently increase another. Emphasising similarities between mental illness and ‘ordinary’ experience to escape the fear-related prejudices associated with the imagined ‘otherness' of persons with mental illness risks conclusions that mental illness indicates moral weakness and the loss of any benefits of a medical model. An emphasis on illness and difference from normal experience risks a response of fear of the alien. Thus, a ‘likeness-based’ and ‘unlikeness-based’ conception of psychiatric stigma can lead to prejudices stemming from paradoxically opposing assumptions about mental illness. This may create a troubling impasse for anti-stigma campaigns.

U2 - 10.1192/pb.bp.113.044693

DO - 10.1192/pb.bp.113.044693

M3 - Article

SN - 1758-3217

VL - 38

SP - 148

EP - 151

JO - The Psychiatric Bulletin (United Kingdom)

JF - The Psychiatric Bulletin (United Kingdom)

IS - 4

ER -