Frederick K. Goodwin, MD

Stigma can be defined as prejudicial attitudes and behaviors towards mental illness, the mentally ill, and mental health professionals. Fundamentally its roots can be traced to the interrelated phenomena of ignorance, fear, and a sense of helplessness. In addition there are powerful special interest groups whose agendas and financial success depend on reinforcing stigma, primarily the “church” of Scientology.

Unfortunately, some within the mental health community inadvertently reinforce stigma; examples of this include well-intentioned hyping the numbers of those who suffer from mental illness, minimizing problems associated with severe untreated mental illness, such as violence (again, well- intentioned), some patient rights advocates, and paternalistic/authoritarian clinicians who fail to treat their patients as collaborators.

This presentation will detail the many ways in which stigma has adversely effected the lives of the mentally ill, their families and their caregivers. However we will also note the unmistakable signs that public attitudes are changing for the better, citing the principal reasons for this, including formal destigmatization programs, the development of newer more effective treatments (which, among other things, have allowed patient-run organizations to flourish) and the dramatic advances in the brain sciences.