The Reality of Mental Illness

Philosophy ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 56 (218) ◽  
pp. 467-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. S. Champlin

My three main points are:(a) Mental disease is a metaphor, but mental illness is not.(b) Feeling ill and having a physical illness are logically related. If there were no such thing as feeling ill, there would be no such thing as suffering from a physical illness. Yet there is no logical connection between feeling ill and being mentally ill.(c) Mental illness is manifested in various forms of behaviour, for example, suspiciousness, elation, depression, etc.; if a form of behaviour is to count as mental illness, it has to be an insane form; yet it is possible to be mentally ill without being insane and it is possible to be insane without being mentally ill.

2021 ◽  
pp. 0193841X2110496
Author(s):  
Alberto Martini ◽  
Enrico Rettore ◽  
Gian Paolo Barbetta ◽  
Fabio Sandrolini

Background: Mental disease is increasing worldwide and people who suffer from it show lower employment rates and lower earnings. Various approaches have been tried to increase the employment rate of people with mental disease. In the US, empirical studies show that individual placement and support(IPS)—a rapid transition to the job market, with some external assistance—is effective in increasing the employment rate of the mentally ill. Europe lacks such evidence. Purpose: The study assesses the impact of an IPS-like program undertaken in Italy on the employment rate of people with severe mental illness. Methods: The analysis is based on a RCT that tests whether offering people with severe mental illness the support of a “job coach” increases their chances of being employed. Moreover, using a battery of tests—one of which is made available by the RCT itself—we show that the large non-compliance with the protocol showed by the RCT is ignorable. This motivates estimating the impact of carrying out a traineeship during the experimental period on employment using non-experimental methods. Results and Conclusions: The study finds that the availability of a coach boosts the patients’ chances of finding a traineeship during the experimental period; moreover, undertaking a traineeship almost doubles the likelihood of being at work one year later. JEL CODES: J78, J48, J38


Author(s):  
Karen Neander

The mad were once thought to be wicked or possessed, whereas now they are generally thought to be sick, or mentally ill. Usually, this is regarded as a benign decision by a more enlightened age, but some see it as a double-edged sword – one that simultaneously relieved and robbed the mad of responsibility for their actions, eventually delivering more compassionate treatment, but also disguising value-laden judgments as objective science. The issue is made more difficult by the diversity of conditions classified as psychiatric disorders, and by the extent to which their causes are still ill understood. But the difficulty is also conceptual: what, after all, is physical illness? People usually agree that it involves abnormal body functioning, but how do we decide what is normal functioning? And even supposing that we know what we mean by a sick body, is there a parallel notion of a sick mind that is more than metaphor?


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. s282-s283
Author(s):  
M. Holubova ◽  
J. Prasko ◽  
H. Klimusova

IntroductionMental illness is still surrounded by false myths, stereotypes and prejudices. Stigmatization is a social problem on a national and international level and may lead to discrimination.ObjectivesStigmatization has a negative impact on patient's life, treatment seeking, self-image, adherence and mental health recovery.AimsThe aim of the study was to examined the tendency to stigmatization mentally ill people by university students in the Czech Republic.MethodsThe constructed questionnaire called Tendency to stigmatization TTS (Cronbach's alpha = 0.952), demographic questionnaire and tentative shortened version of personality questionnaire NEO-PI-R were administered on Facebook offered to student groups.ResultsThe statistical analysis of data from 1350 students showed a relatively high tendency to stigmatization depending on age (stigma is lower with age), gender (women have a lower TTS than men), studied university, faculty, educational focus. The lowest rate of stigmatization had students of psychology. Students of economics, management, informatics and engineering disciplines stigmatize in a high degree. Social oriented students had the lowest TTS, technically orientated the highest. The TTS also depends on personal agreeableness (low-friendly students had a higher TTS) and neuroticism (mentally unstable students had slight TTS). Lower TTS had students who attended psychopathological/psychiatric subject at school, also students, who personally met or know somebody with mental disease and students with mental health problems (Table 1).ConclusionsOur study suggests the importance of stigmatization already among university students according to their academic orientation. Understanding the process of stigmatization is important for future efforts to find possible solutions and de-stigmatization of mental illness in society.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Rajni Suri ◽  
Anshu Suri ◽  
Neelam Kumari ◽  
Amool R. Singh ◽  
Manisha Kiran

The role of women is very crucial in our society. She cares for her parents, partner, children and other relatives. She performs all types of duties in family and also in the society without any expectations. Because of playing many roles, women often face many challenges in their life including both physical and mental. Mental health problems affect women and men equally, but some problems are more common among women including both physical and mental health problems. Aim of the study - The present study is aimed to describe and compare the clinical and socio-demographic correlates of female mentally ill patients. Methods and Materials: The study includes 180 female mentally ill patients based on cross sectional design and the sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi structured socio-demographic data sheet was prepared to collect relevant information as per the need of the study. Result: The present study reveals that the socio-demographic factors contribute a vital role in mental illness. Findings also showed that majority of patients had mental problems in the age range of 20-30 have high rate. Illiterate and primary level of education and daily wage working women as well as low and middle socio-economic status women are more prone to have mental illness. Other factors like marital status, type of family and religion etc also important factors for mental illness. Keywords: Socio demographic profile, female, psychiatric patient


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Gregory Mercier ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Adam Norris

Objective: We test whether prejudice can influence lay attributions of mental illness to perpetrators of violence. Specifically, we examine whether people with negative attitudes towards Muslims perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters. Method: Study 1 compares attributions of mental illness to Muslim and non-Muslim perpetrators of recent mass shootings. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally test whether a mass shooter described in a news article is seen as less mentally ill when described as being a Muslim, compared to when described as a Christian (Study 2) and to when religion is not mentioned (Study 3). Study 4 tests whether a Muslim shooter is seen as less mentally ill than a Christian shooter, even when both shooters have symptoms of mental illness. Results: In all studies, Muslim shooters were seen as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters, but only by those with negative views towards Muslims. Conclusion: Those with anti-Muslim prejudices perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill, likely to maintain culpability and fit narratives about terrorism. This may reinforce anti-Muslim attitudes by leading those with anti-Muslim prejudice to overestimate the amount of violence inspired by groups like ISIS relative to extremist groups from other ideologies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402199006
Author(s):  
Sailaxmi - Gandhi ◽  
Sangeetha Jayaraman ◽  
Thanapal Sivakumar ◽  
Annie P John ◽  
Anoop Joseph ◽  
...  

Background: Clientele’s attitude toward Persons with Mental Illness (PwMI) changes over a period of time. The aim of this study was to explore and understand how and whether perception about PwMI changes when they are seen working like persons without mental illness among those availing services of ROSes café at NIMHANS, Bengaluru. Methods: The descriptive research design was adopted with purposive sampling. Community Attitude toward Mentally Ill (CAMI) a self -administered questionnaire of was administered to measure the clientele attitude towards staff with mental illness in ROSes Café (Recovery Oriented Services). A total of 256 subjects availing services from the ROSes café recruited in the study. Chi-square and Mann–Whitney U test was computed to see the association and differences on selected variables. Results: The present study results showed that subjects had a positive attitude seen in health care professionals in the domains of benevolence (BE) (28.68 ± 3.00) and community mental health ideology (CMHI) (31.53 ± 3.19), whereas non-health care professionals had showed negative attitude in the domain of authoritarianism (AU) (30.54 ± 3.42) and social restrictiveness (SR) (30.18 ± 3.05). Education, employment, marital, income, and working status were significantly associated with CAMI domains. Conclusion: PwMI also can work like people without mental illness when the opportunities are provided. The community needs to regard mental illness in the same manner as chronic physical illness diabetes mellitus and allow PwMI to live a life of dignity by creating and offering opportunities to earn livelihood which would help them recover with their illnesses.


1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Timms

People with mental illness have always been marginalised and economically disadvantaged. Warner (1987) has shown that this is particularly true in times of high unemployment. Poor inner-city areas have excessive rates of severe mental illness, usually without the health, housing and social service provisions necessary to deal with them (Faris & Dunham, 1959). The majority of those who suffer major mental illness live in impoverished circumstances somewhere along the continuum of poverty. Homelessness, however defined, is the extreme and most marginalised end of this continuum, and it is here that we find disproportionate numbers of the mentally ill.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Ignatius Ukpong ◽  
Festus Abasiubong

<p><strong>Background.</strong> The burden of mental illness is particularly severe for people living in low-income countries. Negative attitudes towards the mentally ill, stigma experiences and discrimination constitute part of this disease burden.</p><p><strong>Objective.</strong> The aim of this study was to investigate knowledge of possible causes of mental illness and attitudes towards the mentally ill in a Nigerian university teaching hospital population.</p><p><strong>Method.</strong> A cross-sectional descriptive study of a convenience sample of 208 participants from the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Nigeria, using the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale. Information was also obtained on beliefs about possible causes of mental illness. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Results.</strong> The respondents held strongly negative views about the mentally ill, mostly being authoritarian and restrictive in their attitudes and placing emphasis on custodial care. Even though the respondents appeared to be knowledgeable about the possible role of psychosocial and genetic factors in the causation of mental illness, 52.0% of them believed that witches could be responsible, 44.2% thought mental illness could be due to possession by demons, and close to one-third (30%) felt that it could be a consequence of divine punishment.</p><p><strong>Conclusions.</strong> Stigma and discrimination against the mentally ill are widespread even in a population that is expected to be enlightened. The widespread belief in supernatural causation is likely to add to the difficulties of designing an effective anti-stigma psycho-educational programme. There is a need in Nigeria to develop strategies to change stigma attached to mental illness at both institutional and community levels.</p>


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