ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the use of language in relation to those experiencing enduring disorder and those who purport to help them, together with the contextual factors that give meaning to this discourse. It presents a discussion of the propensity for language to shape reality in relation to this group, and the widespread acceptance of the targeting initiative. The polemical nature of moral panic, as promulgated in the media, is frequently paralleled in the literature discussion of it, given the dearth of rigorous research in this area. The news and entertainment media's coverage of mental health issues in the early to mid 1990s constituted a moral panic seems beyond doubt. The importance of language in mental health care extends beyond the consideration that it is politically correct. The causal metaphor is widely applied to the association between mental disorder and violence in the eye of the public.
