Myth: Reframing Mental Illness as a ‘Brain Disease’ Reduces Stigma, by Joanna Cheek
01/06/2012 (Circa)View on timeline
Neurobiologization can heighten the perception that mentally ill individuals are dangerous, precisely because they lack control and appear unpredictable. In addition, it contributes to erect boundaries between “healthy” individuals and mental health sufferers, now seen as biologically different. Thus, 42 percent of people interviewed in a Canadian survey would no longer socialize with a friend with mental illness, and 55 percent would not marry someone suffering from a mental disorder (Cheek 2012).
As long as it was believed that reframing mental illness as brain disease reduced stigma, the bio-biobio model could be perceived as nourishing acceptance, diversity, and human rights. Biological explanations seemed to exempt individuals from responsibility for their disease (Corrigan et al. 2002, Lopez-Ibor 2002). It turns out that this destigmatizing effect has been exaggerated and that the biological conception of mental illness has sometimes even provided new grounds for intolerance (Angermeyer and Matschinger 2005; Bennett, Thirlaway, and Murray 2008; Phelan 2005; Read and Harré 2001; Schnittker 2008).
All the articles mentioned by Vidal and Ortega, beginning with the one by Joanna Cheek, are listed below.Cheek, Joanna. 2012. “Myth: Reframing Mental Illness as a ‘Brain Disease’ Reduces Stigma.” Canadian...Corrigan, W. Patrick, et al. 2002. “Challenging Two Mental Illness Stigmas: Personal Responsibility...Angermeyer, Matthias C., and Herbert Matschinger. 2005. “Causal Beliefs and Attitudes to People with...
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