Insanity and Social Dangerousness: Philosophical Reflections on Italian Law

Abstract According to Italian law 81/2014, social dangerousness derived only from individual personal characteristics, including mental health conditions. As a result, dangerousness is not perceived as related to a specific context, but on the contrary mainly caused by a psychic condition. Although forensic psychiatry and criminology have denied this axiom for a long time now, this ancient and traditional prejudice where a mentally ill person is dangerous as such, seems to have returned formally. Beyond the contingent issues that may have influenced Italian lawmakers in formulating this legislation, there is a question to ask: why does this union between mental illness/social dangerousness reappears in a cyclic and persistent way? Since imputability and social dangerousness are not topics studied exclusively by law and psychiatry, it is possible to express some philosophical considerations regarding the correlation between insanity and deviance and the ancient bond between insanity and evil. In assessing psychiatric social dangerousness, in order to reconcile instances of the rights of individual patients with the need to protect society, the law needs to take into account these hidden and intertwined issues.

Download Full-text

Public Attitudes Regarding the Community Canadian Mental Health Association Crisis Stabilization Unit in Swan River, Manitoba

McGill Journal of Medicine ◽

10.26443/mjm.v4i1.675 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ivan Rapchuk

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Community Mental Health ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Personal Characteristic ◽

Personal Contact ◽

Crisis Stabilization ◽

Health Association ◽

Mental Health Association ◽

Swan River

A door-to-door survey was conducted on households within a one square block of a Canadian Mental Health Association Crisis Stabilization Unit (Swan River, Manitoba, Canada). This was undertaken to examine the opinions and attitudes of the members of the surveyed households regarding the neighboring community mental health residence, as well as their general attitudes toward mentally ill individuals. The survey utilized preliminary questions to obtain personal characteristics of the respondents, which were followed by 11 short questions regarding attitudes towards mental illness and the neighborhood facility. The findings of this study agree with previous research suggesting a general receptiveness on the part of community residents to deinstitutionalization and to having community mental health residents as neighbors. The personal characteristic with the greatest positive influence on attitudes was previous personal contact with mentally ill individuals. However, it was found that a segment of the population holds negative attitudes towards the CSU. The author suggests that education of the community regarding the mental health facility and mentally ill persons may improve acceptance to a greater extent.

Download Full-text

How Stereotypes Deceive Us

10.1093/oso/9780192845559.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Puddifoot

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

At Risk ◽

Conceptual Framework ◽

Social Attitudes ◽

Health Conditions ◽

Specific Context ◽

Mental Health Conditions ◽

Negative Effect ◽

The Individual ◽

Correct Judgement

Stereotypes sometimes lead us to make poor judgements of other people, but they also have the potential to facilitate quick, efficient, and accurate judgements. How can we discern whether any individual act of stereotyping will have the positive or negative effect? How Stereotypes Deceive Us addresses this question. It identifies various factors that determine whether or not the application of a stereotype to an individual in a specific context will facilitate or impede correct judgements and perceptions of the individual. It challenges the thought that stereotyping only and always impedes correct judgement when the stereotypes that are applied are inaccurate, failing to reflect social realities. It argues instead that stereotypes that reflect social realities can lead to misperceptions and misjudgements, and that inaccurate but egalitarian social attitudes can facilitate correct judgements and accurate perceptions. The arguments presented in this book have important implications for those who might engage in stereotyping and for those at risk of being stereotyped. They have implications for those who work in healthcare and those who have mental health conditions. How Stereotypes Deceive Us provides a new conceptual framework—evaluative dispositionalism—that captures the epistemic faults of stereotypes and stereotyping, providing conceptual resources that can be used to improve our own thinking by avoiding the pitfalls of stereotyping, and to challenge other people’s stereotyping where it is likely to lead to misperception and misjudgement.

Download Full-text

Cinema and Psychiatry’s relationship through time and its role in current medical education

Revista de Medicina y Cine ◽

10.14201/rmc20211714147 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 41-47

Author(s):

Adriana Marcela Arenas-Rojas

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Current Medical ◽

Health Conditions ◽

Psychiatry Residents ◽

Educational Tool ◽

Learning Points

Cinema has been a source of entertainment and recreation for decades, and usually the themes depicted in films have roots in society itself. Films featuring psychiatrists and the mentally ill abound. Most early interpretations tended to be negative contributing to the stigmatization of mental illness, or overly positive furthering misinformation among the general public. Fortunately, nowadays there is an increasing number of films able to provide realistic depictions of psychopathologic disorders, being reasonably accurate and therefore suitable for psychiatric teaching purposes. Over the last three decades, psychiatry trainers have attempted to use films as an educational tool for teaching medical students and psychiatry residents for a number of mental health conditions. Films can be used to engage students’ attention, emphasize learning points in lectures and illustrate symptoms of a disorder. Cinema constitutes not only an important source of entertainment, but also an educational tool and a significant influence on people’s attitude towards mental illness

Download Full-text

Non-psychiatry consultant's attitude towards psychiatry: a study from Universal College of Medical Sciences, Nepal

Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences ◽

10.3126/jucms.v1i4.9563 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 2-6

Author(s):

S Subedi ◽

TK Aich ◽

S Shah ◽

DK Thapa

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Professionals ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Positive Attitude ◽

Descriptive Study ◽

Self Report ◽

Medical Sciences ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Long Time ◽

The Mean

INTRODUCTION: Mental Health has been hidden behind the curtain of stigma and discrimination for a long time. Not only the mentally ill, even the mental health professionals are stigmatized. The medical professional's attitude to psychiatry appear to be negative, although the data are dated. Attitude of non-psychiatry consultants towards psychiatry may affect their ability to promote psychiatry as a discipline. The main aim of this study is to study the non-psychiatry consultants' attitude towards psychiatry. METHODS: It is a hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study of 30 non-psychiatry consultants working in Universal College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Bhairahawa, Nepal. ATP-30 self report questionnaire was used to collect the data. RESULTS: Majority of the subjects were male. About 69% of the consultants didn't have any exposure in the psychiatry. However, majority of the consultants had positive attitude towards psychiatry. The mean score for ATP-30 was 110.03. CONCLUSION: Majority of the consultants had positive attitude towards psychiatry. However some erroneous beliefs are still prevalent among the consultants. The attitude of non-psychiatry consultants directly/indirectly affects the development of psychiatry as a discipline. Further studies of such kind can help to determine whether changes in attitudes towards psychiatry are needed among the non-psychiatry consultants. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jucms.v1i4.9563 Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences (2013) Vol.1 No.04: 2-6

Download Full-text

The Mental Health and Social Exclusion European Network

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027//1016-9040.5.3.245 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 245-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Luigi Leonori ◽

Manuel Muñoz ◽

Carmelo Vázquez ◽

José J. Vázquez ◽

Mary Fe Bravo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

European Union ◽

Social Exclusion ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Outcome Evaluation ◽

World Federation ◽

The European Union ◽

Capital Cities ◽

Homeless Mentally Ill ◽

The Impact

This report concerns the activities developed by the Mental Health and Social Exclusion (MHSE) Network, an initiative supported by the Mental Health Europe (World Federation of Mental Health). We report some data from the preliminary survey done in five capital cities of the European Union (Madrid, Copenhagen, Brussels, Lisbon, and Rome). The main aim of this survey was to investigate, from a mostly qualitative point of view, the causal and supportive factors implicated in the situation of the homeless mentally ill in Europe. The results point out the familial and childhood roots of homelessness, the perceived causes of the situation, the relationships with the support services, and the expectations of future of the homeless mentally ill. The analysis of results has helped to identify the different variables implicated in the social rupture process that influences homelessness in major European cities. The results were used as the basis for the design of a more ambitious current research project about the impact of the medical and psychosocial interventions in the homeless. This project is being developed in 10 capital cities of the European Union with a focus on the program and outcome evaluation of the health and psychosocial services for the disadvantaged.

Download Full-text