Stigma Information on Healthline (original) (raw)

Definitions

The 1999 report on mental health by the Surgeon General of the United States was regarded as a landmark document in the United Kingdom, as well as the United States. This was because of its straightforward identification of the stigma associated with mental illness as the chief obstacle to effective treatment of persons with mental disorders. Stigma(plural, stigmata) is a Greek word that in its origins referred to a kind of tattoo mark that was cut or burned into the skin of criminals, slaves, or traitors in order to visibly identify them as blemished or morally polluted persons. These individuals were to be avoided or shunned, particularly in public places. The word was later applied to other personal attributes that are considered shameful or discrediting.

Social psychologists have distinguished three large classes, or categories, of stigma:

Origins

One explanation for the origin of stigmata is that its roots in the human being's concern for group survival at earlier times in their evolutionary journey. According to this theory, stigmatizing people who were perceived as unable to contribute to the group's survival, or who were seen as threats to its well-being, were stigmatized in order to justify being forced out or being isolated.

The group survival theory is also thought to explain why certain human attributes seem to be universally regarded as stigmata, while others are specific to certain cultures or periods of history. Mental illness appears to be a characteristic that has nearly always led to the stigmatization and exclusion of its victims. The primary influences on Western culture, the classical philosophical tradition of Greece and Rome, and the religious traditions of Judaism and Christianity indicate that mental illness was a feared affliction that carried a heavy stigma. The classical philosopher's definition of a human being as a "rational animal" excluded him or her who had lost the use of reason and was no longer regarded as fully human; most likely he or she was under a divine curse. This attitude was summarized in the well-known saying of Lucretius, "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad."

In the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments reflect the same fear of mental illness. In 1 Samuel 21, there is an account of David's pretending to be insane in order to get away from the king of a neighboring territory. "He changed his behavior before [the king's servants]; he pretended to be mad in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard." The king, who was taken in by an act that certainly fits the _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders_criteria for malingering, quickly sent David on his way. In the New Testament, one of Jesus' most famous miracles of healing (Mark 5:1-20) is the restoration of sanity to a man so stigmatized by his village that he was hunkered down in the graveyard (itself a stigmatized place) outside the village when Jesus met him. Mark's account also notes that the villagers had tried at different times to chain or handcuff the man because they were so afraid of him. One important positive contribution of Biblical heritage, however, is a sense of religious obligation toward the mentally ill. Among Christians, the New Testament's account of Jesus' openness to all kinds of stigmatized people—tax collectors, prostitutes, and physically deformed people, as well as the mentally ill—became the basis for the establishment of the first shelters and hospitals for the mentally ill.