Stigma and stigmatization within and beyond psychiatry

Abstract

In the past decades, awareness has grown that stigmatization is a heavy burden for people with psychosis and their relatives. The suffering because of the stigma, prejudices, defamation, and accusations becomes a second illness. Therefore, if psychiatry wants to treat successfully, it has to deal also with the stigmatization of its patients. Meanwhile, it is doing so not only on an individual level. Numerous national psychiatric professional associations, relative’s groups, and self-help organizations for people who have experienced illness are attempting-sometimes in large-scale campaigns-to have a positive influence on the general public’s perception of mentally ill people and psychiatry. These efforts are taking place under the generic term “de-stigmatization." De-stigmatization is a made-up word that is not found in any dictionary. Like “de-hospitalization," it signals hope and ambivalence at the same time.