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Names of Mental Health Disorders Impose Massive Impact on Patients
Mental health is more than disorders; what we call them carries significant weight in patient stigma, treatment, and outcomes.
Stigma is not new to mental health, and its presence, especially in terms of mental health illnesses, can be devastating to those who seek remediation for it. But stigma has been around for a long time, and now we may see the dawn of an emergent new understanding of its place in terms of mental health, especially PTSD.
Studies of stigmatization are part of a subfield of social psychology that shares some ground with studies of attitudes. The scientific idea of mental illness stigma emerged in the mid-20th century, initially in theory and then in the 1970s in practice. American sociologist Erving Goffman’s 1963 book “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity” established stigma research as a field of study and detailed the coping mechanisms of stigmatized individuals.
Goffman wrote: “There is no country, society or culture where people with mental illness have the same societal value as people without a mental illness.”
A significant example of mental disturbance and its tragic effects on people in New England can be found in the stories related to the witch trials. research, many years later, found that some of the…
