Mentalism (discrimination)
Encyclopedia
Mentalism is a form of discrimination
and oppression
against people based on categorization of mental type (e.g. ADHD, bipolar
or schizophrenia
), mental action (e.g. stuttering
or Tourette syndrome
), supposed intelligence, or neurology
(e.g. neurotypical
or autism spectrum disorder), especially against those diagnosed with a mental disorder or a mental illness.
Like other "isms" such as sexism
and racism
, it is characterized by complex social inequalities in power. It can result in blatant mistreatment or multiple, small insults and indignities. The negative attitudes and terms may be internalized. Terms with a similar meaning that are sometimes used are "psychophobia" and "sanism".
, mentioned specifically by Judi Chamberlin
in a well-known book of the period "On Our Own", published in the United States
in 1978. People began to recognize a pattern in how they were treated, a set of assumptions which most people seemed to hold about mental (ex)patients - that they were incompetent, unable to do things for themselves, constantly in need of supervision and assistance, unpredictable, likely to be violent or irrational etc. It was realized that not only did the general public express mentalist ideas, so did ex-patients, a form of internalized oppression
.
As of 1998 the term had been adopted by some consumers/survivors in the UK
and the USA, but had not gained general currency. This left a conceptual gap filled in part by the concept of "stigma
", which could be focused on experiences and perceptions (a "mark of shame") rather than on the actual material discrimination (unfair treatment). Nevertheless, a body of literature demonstrated widespread discrimination across many spheres of life, including employment
, parental rights, housing
, immigration
, insurance
, health care
and access to justice
.
. Further discrimination may involve labeling some as "high functioning" and some as "low-functioning". In either case, their behaviors are recast in pathological
terms.
The discrimination can be so fundamental and unquestioned that it can stop people truly empathizing
(although they may think they are) or genuinely seeing the other point of view with respect. Mentalism may lead a person to erroneously believe they understand the other's situation and needs better than they do themselves.
employed. It is argued that they can stigmatize or communicate contempt
or inferiority, rather than help with the understanding of specific experiences. Mental health professionals may argue that the terms are needed, which has been compared to the way a person may justify the use of ethnic slurs because they intend no harm, but it is argued that most could easily be expressed in a more accurate, less offensive manner.
Some terms may be used far beyond their usual meanings, in a way that obscures the reality of the experience of the person concerned - for example, having a bad time may be relabelled as decompensation
; incarceration
or solitary confinement
may be described as "treatment"; regular activities like listening to music, engaging in simple activities or even just being in a certain environment, become "therapies"; all sorts of behaviors are recast as "symptom
s"; core adverse effect
s of drugs are termed "side" effects.
adverse effects, a poor match between the treatment and the person's lifestyle, stigma associated with the treatment, difficulty with access, cultural unacceptability or many other issues.
Mentalism may lead people to assume that a person isn't aware of what they're doing and that there is no point trying to communicate with them, despite the fact that they may well have a level of awareness and desire to connect even if they are acting in a seemingly irrational or self-harm
ing way. In addition, mental health
clinicians tend to equate subduing a person with treatment; a quiet client who causes no community disturbance is deemed "improved" no matter how miserable or incapacitated that person may feel as a result.
Clinicians may blame clients for not being sufficiently motivated to work on treatment goals, or as "acting out
" when their own goals are not supported. It is argued, however, that in the majority of cases this is actually due to the client having been treated in a disrespectful, judgmental, or dismissive manner. Such mentalist behavior may again be justified by blaming the person as having been demanding, angry or "needing limits", but it is argued that power-sharing can nevertheless be cultivated and that when respectful communication
breaks down, the first thing that needs to be asked is whether mentalist prejudices have been expressed.
in monitoring for possible adverse effects, or viewing such effects as more acceptable than they would be for others. This has been compared to instances of maltreatment based on racism
. Mentalism has also been linked to neglect in failing to check for or respect people's past experiences of abuse
or trauma
. Treatments that do not support choice and self-determination
may cause people to re-experience the helplessness, pain, despair, and rage that accompanied the trauma, and yet attempts to cope with this may be labeled as "acting out
", "manipulating
" or "attention-seeking".
Mentalism can lead to "poor" or "guarded" predictions of the future for the person; a pessimistic view skewed by a narrow clinical experience, that can be impervious to contrary evidence because those who succeed can be discounted as having been misdiagnosed or didn't have the "real" disorder. The result can be self-fulfilling, as individuals are told they have no real hope.
, resulting in alienation from their original values and disappointment in "the system", and adoption of the cynical, mentalist beliefs that pervade such organizations. However, just as employees can be dismissed for disparaging sexual or ethnic remarks, it is argued that staff who are entrenched in negative stereotype
s, attitudes, and beliefs about those labeled with mental disorders need to be removed from service organizations.
At a society-wide level, mentalism has been perceived as linked to people being kept in poverty
as second class citizens, to employment discrimination
keeping people living on handouts; to interpersonal discrimination hindering relationships, to stereotypes promoted through the media spreading fears of unpredictability and dangerousness, and to people fearing to disclose or talk about their experiences.
A 2001 publication by psychiatric nurses on stigma in healthcare that included the view of a leading figure in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement, Pete Shaughnessy
, concluded that the National Health Service
in England
is "institutionally mentalist and has a lot of soul searching to do in the new Millenium" including addressing the prejudice of its office staff. He suggested that when prejudice is applied by the very professionals who aspire to eradicate it, it raises the question of whether it will ever be eradicated. Shaughnessey committed suicide
in 2002.
It has been argued that the Psychiatric Survivors Movement
is partly a feminist issue because: "Our issues are important for all women because mentalism acts as a threat to all women. Survivors issues are likewise important to all women because mentalism threatens women's families and children."
A psychiatric survivor and professional said that "Mentalism parallels sexism and racism in creating an oppressed underclass, in this case of people who have received psychiatric diagnosis and treatment" She reported that the most frequent complaint of psychiatric patients is that nobody listens, or only selectively in the course of trying to make a diagnosis.
Michael L. Perlin, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has written in 'Competence in the law: from legal theory to clinical application" that: "Sanism is an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause, and are reflected in, prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia and ethnic bigotry ... Sanism infects jurisprudence and lawyering practices in a largely invisible and largely socially acceptable way. It is based predominantly upon stereotype, myth, superstition, and deindividualization ... Its corrosive effects have warped mental disability law jurisprudence
in involuntary civil commitment law, institutional law, tort law, and all aspects of the criminal process (pretrial, trial and sentencing)."
, ageism
, homophobia
etc.) can have a negative physical, social, economic and psychological effects on individuals, which may cause emotional distress
and sometimes "mental health" problems. Society's response to such distress is to treat it within a system of medical and social care rather than understanding and challenging the oppressions that gave rise to it, thus reinforcing them with further oppressive attitudes and practices, which can lead to more distress, and so on in a vicious cycle. In addition, due to coming into contact with mental health services, people become subject to the oppression of mentalism, since society (and mental health services themselves) have such negative attitudes towards people with a psychiatric diagnosis, thus further perpetuating oppression and discrimination.
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
and oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
against people based on categorization of mental type (e.g. ADHD, bipolar
Bipolar
-Medicine:* Bipolar cell* Bipolar cell of the retina* Bipolar disorder** Bipolar I disorder** Bipolar II disorder** Bipolar NOS* Bipolar spectrum-Astronomy:* Bipolar nebula, a two-lobed, axially symmetric nebula...
or schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
), mental action (e.g. stuttering
Stuttering
Stuttering , also known as stammering , is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds...
or Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane...
), supposed intelligence, or neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
(e.g. neurotypical
Neurotypical
Neurotypical is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to...
or autism spectrum disorder), especially against those diagnosed with a mental disorder or a mental illness.
Like other "isms" such as sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, it is characterized by complex social inequalities in power. It can result in blatant mistreatment or multiple, small insults and indignities. The negative attitudes and terms may be internalized. Terms with a similar meaning that are sometimes used are "psychophobia" and "sanism".
Origin
The term developed in the 1970s out of the psychiatric survivors movementPsychiatric survivors movement
The psychiatric survivors movement is a diverse association of individuals who are either currently clients of mental health services , or who consider themselves survivors of interventions by psychiatry, or who identify themselves as ex-patients of mental health services...
, mentioned specifically by Judi Chamberlin
Judi Chamberlin
Judi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivors movement. Her political activism followed her involuntary confinement in a psychiatric facility in the 1960s...
in a well-known book of the period "On Our Own", published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1978. People began to recognize a pattern in how they were treated, a set of assumptions which most people seemed to hold about mental (ex)patients - that they were incompetent, unable to do things for themselves, constantly in need of supervision and assistance, unpredictable, likely to be violent or irrational etc. It was realized that not only did the general public express mentalist ideas, so did ex-patients, a form of internalized oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
.
As of 1998 the term had been adopted by some consumers/survivors in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the USA, but had not gained general currency. This left a conceptual gap filled in part by the concept of "stigma
Stigma
Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark". It may refer to:-As a symbolic mark:* The Mark of Cain* Stigmata, bodily marks or wounds resembling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus...
", which could be focused on experiences and perceptions (a "mark of shame") rather than on the actual material discrimination (unfair treatment). Nevertheless, a body of literature demonstrated widespread discrimination across many spheres of life, including employment
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
, parental rights, housing
Housing
Housing may refer to:* A House* Social or public housing* Enclosure containing some equipment or mechanism*House dance...
, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and access to justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
.
Divisions
Mentalism, at an extreme, splits people into an empowered group assumed to be normal, healthy, reliable, and capable, and a powerless group assumed to be sick, disabled, crazy, unpredictable, and violent. This divide can justify inconsiderate treatment of the latter group and expectations of poorer standards of living for them, for which they may be expected to express gratitudeGratitude
Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions, and has been considered extensively by moral...
. Further discrimination may involve labeling some as "high functioning" and some as "low-functioning". In either case, their behaviors are recast in pathological
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
terms.
The discrimination can be so fundamental and unquestioned that it can stop people truly empathizing
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
(although they may think they are) or genuinely seeing the other point of view with respect. Mentalism may lead a person to erroneously believe they understand the other's situation and needs better than they do themselves.
Clinical terminology
Mentalism is often enshrined in clinical terminology in subtle ways, including in the basic diagnostic categoriesDiagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...
employed. It is argued that they can stigmatize or communicate contempt
Contempt
Contempt is an intensely negative emotion regarding a person or group of people as inferior, base, or worthless—it is similar to scorn. It is also used when people are being sarcastic. Contempt is also defined as the state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace, and an open disrespect or willful...
or inferiority, rather than help with the understanding of specific experiences. Mental health professionals may argue that the terms are needed, which has been compared to the way a person may justify the use of ethnic slurs because they intend no harm, but it is argued that most could easily be expressed in a more accurate, less offensive manner.
Some terms may be used far beyond their usual meanings, in a way that obscures the reality of the experience of the person concerned - for example, having a bad time may be relabelled as decompensation
Decompensation
In medicine, decompensation is the functional deterioration of a previously working structure or system. Decompensation may occur due to fatigue, stress, illness, or old age. When a system is "compensated," it is able to function despite stressors or defects. Decompensation describes an inability...
; incarceration
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
or solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
may be described as "treatment"; regular activities like listening to music, engaging in simple activities or even just being in a certain environment, become "therapies"; all sorts of behaviors are recast as "symptom
Symptom
A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality...
s"; core adverse effect
Adverse effect
In medicine, an adverse effect is a harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication or other intervention such as surgery.An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. If it results from an unsuitable or incorrect dosage or...
s of drugs are termed "side" effects.
Blame
Interpretations of behaviors, and applications of treatments, may be done in an arrogant unjustified way because of an underlying mentalism. If the recipient disagrees or does not change, they may be labeled as "non-compliant" "uncooperative" or "treatment-resistant". This is despite the fact that it may be due to inadequate understanding of the person or his/her problems, medicationMedication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
adverse effects, a poor match between the treatment and the person's lifestyle, stigma associated with the treatment, difficulty with access, cultural unacceptability or many other issues.
Mentalism may lead people to assume that a person isn't aware of what they're doing and that there is no point trying to communicate with them, despite the fact that they may well have a level of awareness and desire to connect even if they are acting in a seemingly irrational or self-harm
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...
ing way. In addition, mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
clinicians tend to equate subduing a person with treatment; a quiet client who causes no community disturbance is deemed "improved" no matter how miserable or incapacitated that person may feel as a result.
Clinicians may blame clients for not being sufficiently motivated to work on treatment goals, or as "acting out
Acting out
Acting out is a psychological term from the parlance of defense mechanisms and self-control, meaning to perform an action in contrast to bearing and managing the impulse to perform it. The acting done is usually anti-social and may take the form of acting on the impulses of an addiction Acting out...
" when their own goals are not supported. It is argued, however, that in the majority of cases this is actually due to the client having been treated in a disrespectful, judgmental, or dismissive manner. Such mentalist behavior may again be justified by blaming the person as having been demanding, angry or "needing limits", but it is argued that power-sharing can nevertheless be cultivated and that when respectful communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
breaks down, the first thing that needs to be asked is whether mentalist prejudices have been expressed.
Neglect
Mentalism has been linked to negligenceNegligence
Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
in monitoring for possible adverse effects, or viewing such effects as more acceptable than they would be for others. This has been compared to instances of maltreatment based on racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. Mentalism has also been linked to neglect in failing to check for or respect people's past experiences of abuse
Abuse
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...
or trauma
Trauma
Trauma can refer to:-In psychology and medicine:* Trauma , an often serious and body-altering physical injury, such as the removal of a limb...
. Treatments that do not support choice and self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
may cause people to re-experience the helplessness, pain, despair, and rage that accompanied the trauma, and yet attempts to cope with this may be labeled as "acting out
Acting out
Acting out is a psychological term from the parlance of defense mechanisms and self-control, meaning to perform an action in contrast to bearing and managing the impulse to perform it. The acting done is usually anti-social and may take the form of acting on the impulses of an addiction Acting out...
", "manipulating
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
" or "attention-seeking".
Mentalism can lead to "poor" or "guarded" predictions of the future for the person; a pessimistic view skewed by a narrow clinical experience, that can be impervious to contrary evidence because those who succeed can be discounted as having been misdiagnosed or didn't have the "real" disorder. The result can be self-fulfilling, as individuals are told they have no real hope.
Institutional discrimination
Offensive and injurious practices may be integrated into clinical procedures, a form of institutional mentalism to the point where professionals no longer recognize them as discrimination. Mentalism may be apparent in physical separation, including separate use of facilities or accommodation, or lower standards. Mental health professionals can be drawn into systems based on bureaucratic or financial imperatives and social controlSocial control
Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-cultural, if only in the control...
, resulting in alienation from their original values and disappointment in "the system", and adoption of the cynical, mentalist beliefs that pervade such organizations. However, just as employees can be dismissed for disparaging sexual or ethnic remarks, it is argued that staff who are entrenched in negative stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s, attitudes, and beliefs about those labeled with mental disorders need to be removed from service organizations.
At a society-wide level, mentalism has been perceived as linked to people being kept in poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
as second class citizens, to employment discrimination
Employment discrimination
Employment discrimination is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment....
keeping people living on handouts; to interpersonal discrimination hindering relationships, to stereotypes promoted through the media spreading fears of unpredictability and dangerousness, and to people fearing to disclose or talk about their experiences.
A 2001 publication by psychiatric nurses on stigma in healthcare that included the view of a leading figure in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement, Pete Shaughnessy
Pete Shaughnessy
Peter Anthony "Pete" Shaughnessy was an English mental health activist and one of the founders of Mad Pride, a group of mental health activists who reclaimed terms such as 'mad' and 'nutter' from misuse, and campaigned for the rights of the mentally ill.Shaughnessy was born in South London and...
, concluded that the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is "institutionally mentalist and has a lot of soul searching to do in the new Millenium" including addressing the prejudice of its office staff. He suggested that when prejudice is applied by the very professionals who aspire to eradicate it, it raises the question of whether it will ever be eradicated. Shaughnessey committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in 2002.
It has been argued that the Psychiatric Survivors Movement
Psychiatric survivors movement
The psychiatric survivors movement is a diverse association of individuals who are either currently clients of mental health services , or who consider themselves survivors of interventions by psychiatry, or who identify themselves as ex-patients of mental health services...
is partly a feminist issue because: "Our issues are important for all women because mentalism acts as a threat to all women. Survivors issues are likewise important to all women because mentalism threatens women's families and children."
A psychiatric survivor and professional said that "Mentalism parallels sexism and racism in creating an oppressed underclass, in this case of people who have received psychiatric diagnosis and treatment" She reported that the most frequent complaint of psychiatric patients is that nobody listens, or only selectively in the course of trying to make a diagnosis.
Michael L. Perlin, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has written in 'Competence in the law: from legal theory to clinical application" that: "Sanism is an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause, and are reflected in, prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia and ethnic bigotry ... Sanism infects jurisprudence and lawyering practices in a largely invisible and largely socially acceptable way. It is based predominantly upon stereotype, myth, superstition, and deindividualization ... Its corrosive effects have warped mental disability law jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
in involuntary civil commitment law, institutional law, tort law, and all aspects of the criminal process (pretrial, trial and sentencing)."
Multiple discriminations
A spiral of oppression experienced by oppressed groups in society has been identified. Firstly, oppressions in society on the grounds of difference (for which terms may exist, such as racism, sexism, classismClassism
Classism is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes...
, ageism
Ageism
Ageism, also called age discrimination is stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age based prejudice, discrimination, and subordination...
, homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
etc.) can have a negative physical, social, economic and psychological effects on individuals, which may cause emotional distress
Emotional distress
Mental distress or anxiety suffered as a response to a sudden, severe, and saddening experience.Emotional distress may refer to:* Law of torts:** Intentional infliction of emotional distress** Negligent infliction of emotional distress* Medicine:...
and sometimes "mental health" problems. Society's response to such distress is to treat it within a system of medical and social care rather than understanding and challenging the oppressions that gave rise to it, thus reinforcing them with further oppressive attitudes and practices, which can lead to more distress, and so on in a vicious cycle. In addition, due to coming into contact with mental health services, people become subject to the oppression of mentalism, since society (and mental health services themselves) have such negative attitudes towards people with a psychiatric diagnosis, thus further perpetuating oppression and discrimination.
External links
- Solving the Problems of Mentalism Presentation at the National Association of Case Management NACM 2006 Conference
- Psychophobia in Art
- Fight Psychophobia
- Challenging ideas in mental health
- Loose-talking psychophobes show nothing but contempt