Stigma and Mental Illness: Theory Versus Reality

The stigma of mental illness—the negative attitudes toward and rejection of the mentally ill— is a topic that has received increasing attention in recent years. The President's Commission on Mental Health (1978) recommended that a task force be established to help reduce stigma, to improve public understanding of mental illness, to assist former patients in the community, and to encourage the mass media to present more accurate descriptions of the mentally ill. The National Institute of Mental Health sponsored a research workshop on attitudes toward the mentally ill in an effort to identify the questions most central to eliminating discrimination and promoting a better life for former patients in the community (Rabkin, Gelb and Lazar, 1980). The present conference for Alabama mental health professionals—on the barriers imposed by stigma, methods for resolving these barriers, and growth toward community acceptance of the deinstitutionalized per-