Crazy Mad Nutters: The Language of Mental Health

Becoming the Denigrated Other: Group Relations Perspectives on Initial Reactions to a Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis

The initial reactions to a bipolar disorder diagnosis of research participants in a small, qualitative study consisted of astonishment, dread of being "mad," and extremely negative associations. All had prior mental health diagnoses, including episodes of severe depression (all but one) and alcoholism (one). All participants reported mental health histories prediagnosis and most had spent years...

Myth: reframing mental illness as a 'brain disease' reduces stigma.

People living with mental illness often describe the associated stigma as being more debilitating than the illness itself. 1, 2 Stigma involves the labelling and stereotyping of persons living with mental illness as being “different” or having “undesirable” characteristics. Those who experience stigma face discrimination as well as a loss of status and power to change their situation.3 Stigma i...

A crazy system: mental health care delivery in America.

The failure of the ADA -- achieving parity with respect to mental and physical health care coverage in the private employment realm.

The business people have not been exposed to all of this legal terminology. You tell them 'mentally ill' and their word, and I'm going to say it in Spanish, is 'loco', crazy. 'We don't hire a loco. We don't hire a crazy person.' Any kind-it doesn't matter if it is a manic-depressive-the word there is loco. 'We've got a loco crazy working with us.' It is sad but that is the way it is.

"The street will drive you crazy": why homeless psychotic women in the institutional circuit in the United States often say no to offers of help.

Many people who struggle with psychotic disorder often refuse offers of help, including housing, extended by mental health services. This article uses the ethnographic method to examine the reasons for such refusal among women who are homeless and psychiatrically ill in the institutional circuit in an urban area of Chicago. It concludes that such refusals arise not only from a lack of insight b...