The Mark of Madness

Abstract

Stigma is a major barrier to recovery for individuals with mental illnesses. It interferes with community living and attainment of resources and goals and damages self-esteem and self-efficacy. Given that social workers provide much of the mental health care to individuals with mental illnesses, and that actions to reduce stigma support the social justice mission of social work, addressing stigma should be a focus of social work interventions. The goals of this paper are to explore stigma theory in general and for individuals with serious mental illnesses, discuss the implications of this stigma analysis for social work, and make recommendations for action in both practice and research.     

Independence as a stigmatizing value for older people considering relocation to a residential home

Based on older people's perspectives, the aim of this article is to reveal how the culture of independence influences the decision-making process preceding relocation to a residential home. Since there is a predominant ideology of ageing in place in Sweden like in many other welfare states, the focus is on how a continued life in ordinary housing is justified versus how relocation to a residential home is excused. Twenty-one older people have been included in open semi-structured interviews and in follow-up contacts. The findings show that the value of independence, originally intended to protect the position of older people, in practice led to stigmatizing processes. In order to bridge the gap between values and declining capacities, expectations and actions, older people develop individual-oriented, family-oriented, and public-oriented justifications and excuses, so-called ‘accounts.’     

Childless in an IVF-nation: online stigma-coping strategies in support groups for childless Israeli women

Drawing from stigma theory, this study examines strategies for coping with stigma in online support forums for Israeli childless women. Quantitative content analysis of two online support forums and in-depth interviews with group members ? for voluntarily childless and for infertile Israeli women ? are used to address the study’s research questions. Childbearing is highly valued in Israeli society and women who do not become mothers end up to be widely and deeply stigmatized. Results indicate that the type of stigma and the social context play an important role in the use of online stigma-coping strategies. Posts discussing stigma dominate both forums. Members of both groups use group identification as a stigma-coping strategy and develop a sense of community to cope with stigma. Nevertheless, group identification is more common in the fertility group, while the stigma challenging occurs significantly more in the voluntarily childless group. Excerpts from interviews with group members shed light on the motivations and benefits of becoming forum members. By addressing the role of computer-mediated communication in coping with the Israeli childless stigma, this study contributes to the stigma and feminist literature by highlighting the ways local pronatalist norms influence the manifestation of different coping strategies in online environments.     

污名化与社会排斥：低度认知下的艾滋病防治——基于甘肃省一般人群的调查分析

公众对艾滋病的认知依然处于一种低度认知水平。而＂污名化＂标签与社会排斥已成为防治艾滋病工作中的重大障碍,为了更有效地预防和控制艾滋病的蔓延,首先要消除对艾滋病人的＂污名化＂标签,进而减少对艾滋病人的社会排斥,给艾滋病人一道平视的目光。     

心理疾病污名影响研究与展望

心理疾病污名是加诸在心理疾病患者身上的耻辱标记,主要指由与心理疾病有关的刻板印象引发的社会地位丧失和歧视.研究证实污名的存在会妨碍患者的治疗和康复,污名问题由此引起世界卫生界的广泛关注,其中的一个研究热点就是关于污名影响的研究.标签理论和修正标签理论对污名影响机制进行了分析;污名对心理疾病患者及相关人群的各种影响可从两个方面进行衡量:公众污名和自我污名;抗议、教育和接触是减少污名的有效方法.未来在中国文化背景中开展的心理疾病污名研究,应紧密结合传统文化分析污名的影响机制,并对应对污名策略的可行性进行探索.     

Incorporating structural stigma into network analysis

A rich literature has explored the modeling of homophily and other forms of nonuniform mixing associated with individual-level covariates within the exponential family random graph (ERGM) framework. Such differential mixing does not fully explain phenomena such as stigma, however, which involve the active maintenance of social boundaries by ostracism of persons with out-group ties. Here, we introduce a new family of statistics that allows for such effects to be captured, making it possible to probe for the potential presence of boundary maintenance above and beyond simple differences in nomination rates. We demonstrate these statistics in the context of gender segregation in a school classroom, and introduce a framework for understanding the associated coefficients via network perturbation.     

Breaking the silence: parentally suicide-bereaved youths’ self-disclosure on the internet and the social responses of others related to stigma

‘Suicide stigma’ contributes to the silencing of parental suicide within family and social networks. This article departs from a narrative theoretical framework on grief and identity to analyse suicide-bereaved youths ‘breaking the silence’ through self-disclosure in self-initiated chat threads on the Internet, which is their way of actively seeking social support, telling of their experiences and opening up space for a renegotiation of the meanings around suicide. The article investigates which narrative frameworks for the interpretation of suicide are operating in these contexts, and whether and, if so, how stigma is reproduced or counteracted. Two frameworks are identified: ‘Who is to blame for suicide?’; and ‘What caused the suicide?’. The former is utilized by the newly bereaved chat-initiators, who attribute blame for suicide to the parent and/or themselves in accordance with stigmatizing discourses. These are reproduced in the responses first and foremost of the non-suicide-bereaved, who construct a dichotomy between the deceased parent as ‘perpetrator’ and the child as ‘victim’ in order to relieve blame. A lack of contact with other suicide-bereaved youths can reinforce feelings of otherness. Identities, however, can potentially be de-stigmatized by the meanings drawn from the latter framework.     

The stigma of mental illness in the labor market

Mental illness labels are accompanied by devaluation and discrimination. We extend research on reactions to mental illness by utilizing a field experiment (N = 635) to test effects of mental illness labels on labor market discrimination. This study involved sending fictitious applications to job listings, some applications indicating a history of mental illness and some indicating a history of physical injury. In line with research indicating that mental illness leads to stigma, we predicted fewer callbacks to candidates with mental illness. We also predicted relatively fewer callbacks for applicants with mental illness when the jobs involved a greater likelihood for interpersonal contact with the employer. Results showed significant discrimination against applicants with mental illness, but did not indicate an effect of potential proximity to the employer. This contributes a valuable finding in a natural setting to research on labor market discrimination towards people with mental illness.     

Qualitative evaluation of HIV/AIDS IEC activities in Madagascar

UNICEF commissioned a qualitative evaluation of a program in which two partners conducted prevention activities concerning HIV/AIDS and STIs amongst youth in Madagascar. The evaluation assessed project activities and conducted a practical exercise in focus group methodology, following a workshop on evaluation techniques. Information was collected from a wide range of people, including 441 participants in 46 focus groups in nine sites. Six sites were areas of project activities and three sites were targeted for future activities. Clubs that integrated HIV/AIDS and STI information into their regular activities were most successful in their information, education and communication activities. A more participatory approach is recommended, to achieve a better match between target groups and messages delivered, and to foster trust and support. Another challenge remaining is to address fears and stigma through advocacy for the care and support of affected people.     

Dancing with discrimination: managing stigma and identity

Fans are a group that are stigmatized and discredited, at least to some degree, by their “deviant” and common form of symbolic consumption. At stake in the process of stigmatization is the very identity of the individual fan, and their symbolic and emotional well‐being. This paper reports on an empirical study of one particular group of fans—Star Trek fans (or “Trekkies”)—and explores the complex identity issues articulated by them as they “manage” their problematic public identity. Drawing upon interviews conducted with 18 Trekkies, the article describes how this stigmatic identity is organized within a disciplinary matrix that operates at a micro level through two key processes: humour and self‐surveillance. In particular, we highlight their struggle with the dilemmas of exposing their private “fandom” in a public context, and the highly ambivalent manner in which they seek to escape stigmatization.