Honor Whiteman reports on a study in The Journal of Counseling & Development, which found that people may be less tolerant of an individual described as having a “mental illness” than those described as “people with a mental illness.”
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Person A: Have you met my friend, “mental illness”?
Person B: Don’t care to actually.
Person A: What’s the matter with you. Are you prejudiced?
Person B: Not really, but you know people are often judged by the company they keep.
Person A: You wouldn’t judge me in such a facile manner, would you?
Person B: I’ve heard plenty of bad things about this “mental illness” character. I’d think you’d be better off without him.
Person A: You are prejudiced, aren’t you?
Person B: No, I’m just careful about the company I keep.
Person A: Does that mean you can’t have anything to do with me.
Person B: No. I don’t have a problem with you at all, but this “mental illness”, well, I wouldn’t have him hanging around here.
Person A: You are prejudiced.
Person B: Whatever. He’s not welcome.
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From the Hippocratic Oath:
“I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.”
Today’s psychiatrists depersonalize those they treat, and think of them as a “schizophrenic” or “bipolar” or a “depression caused by self.”
This behavior was known to be immoral and wrong long, long ago.
