ABSTRACT
Stigma occurs when a person’s actual social identity falls short of the ideal identity defined by society, such as behavioural expectations in given situations. A person with mental illness who may therefore demonstrate lapses in social integration is a potential candidate for stigma. Once such persons are spotted, they are labelled, which effectively isolates them. Subsequently, they are associated with undesirable characteristics and broadly discriminated against as a result. Attitudes towards them change to agree with the label. Through a systematic, ongoing process of labelling and discrimination, the ‘career’ of mental illness is thus perpetuated for victims, as the process effectively restricts and confines them to the world defined for them. The victim is literally disabled. Such individuals may be compelled to interpret their experiences in the light of the prevailing social stereotype of mental illness and even modify their behaviour to fit the image. Thus, once the label is assigned, justified or not, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that promotes the development of psychiatric symptoms. Therefore, the traditional reductionist approaches to understanding mental health and illness with genetic, biochemical, and psychological investigations that focus somewhat exclusively on dynamic systems within the individual have a narrow incomplete focus. A person labelled ‘mentally ill’ is likely to be stigmatised even in the absence of any aberrant behaviour.
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