What influences perception about mental illness?
Beliefs and perception about mental health issues can all vary solely on one’s cultural
background. After doing some research I found that “Asian studies revealed the beliefs that
somatic and organic factors lead to emotional problems and thus prefer physical treatment.
Mental health problems and their causes are explained by Chinese culture as an imbalance of
cosmic forces, and the preferred treatment is to restore the balance through interpersonal
relationships, diet, exercise, and focusing on cognitions. According to a study on Jewish
population, mental illness is seen as an opportunity to receive divine messages, a means of
forgiveness, and to improve their souls.”
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5096745/)
Along with religious beliefs, I found several articles about how mentally ill people were
looked down at because of their diagnosis. For example, “Cynthia’s friend from church told her
that taking medications demonstrated a lack of faith. The friend advised her to throw away her
pills. Not long after, Cynthia was found wandering the streets of another city, confused and in a
daze. She had to be committed to hospital against her will. To this day, she is still in denial,
feeling guilt and shame.” Mental illness was looked at as demonic possession.
(https://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/visions/stigma-and-discrimination-vol2/mental-disorders-the-resul
t-of-sin)
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Mental illness has often been portrayed as some sort of evil, whether it’s in movies,
shows, or even real life. For example, in the movie “Split” the main character is a man that has
24 different personalities who was made out to be a villain and kidnaps three teenage girls in an
isolated underground facility. This man was also played out to be some sort of monster that
actually had superpowers. He was the antagonist of the Eastrail 177 film trilogy, serving as the
main antagonist in the second installment Split, and the secondary antagonist of the third and
final installment Glass. In other words, a man with a personality disorder was made to be a super
villain simply because of his disorder.
Another film that antagonizes mental illness is “A Beautiful Mind”, this film is about a
brilliant academic who suffers from schizophrenia. His mental illness slowly takes over his mind
and we watch as his life crumbles apart around him. He abandons his students, alienates his
colleagues and replaces his research with a fruitless and all-consuming obsession. Eventually he
is taken into hospital where he is forced, with the help of electric-shock therapy and regular
medication, to accept his condition and attempt to repair the shattered fragments of his life. After
reading reviews of the film, someone say’s “And when his great breakthrough finally comes,
Nash is not poring over his books in the library or gazing fixedly at his glass equivalent of a
blackboard, he’s in a bar, eyeing up a group of attractive young women. How visually
convenient.” This part of the review is interesting to me because the person shows how his
character was dramatized. Perhaps, this often happens in films to make the storyline more
interesting or directors genuinely believe that someone who is mentally ill is the antagonist, even
in real life.
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Where did it all start? Who taught society that people with mental illness should be
antagonized? According to “No such thing as mental illness? Critical reflections on the major
ideas and legacy of Thomas Szasz” written by Tony B. Benning, “Thomas Szasz posited that
so-called mental illnesses cannot legitimately be categorized as diseases. This launched an
argument that Szasz would elaborate over the course of a prolific writing career that spanned
more than 50 years.” Who is Thomaz Szaz? Thomas Stephen Szasz was a Hungarian-American
academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State
University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. How can a
psychiatrist write a book called “The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of
Personal Conduct”? Thomas Szas believes that only physical illnesses are real and that mental
diseases are ‘counterfeit and metaphorical illnesses’. When a Doctor that specializes in mental
health writes a book with a topic so controversial, it’s going to lead to other people becoming
brainwashed as well, which can explain why even up to this day people with mental illness are
antagonized.
Moreover, “In this respect, Szasz was cognizant of the interplay between
diagnosis and political and social power; medicalisation gives a pre-eminent role to doctors, it
privileges the role of medication as a therapeutic intervention and so the pharmaceutical industry
stands to profit much by stretching the boundaries of the concept of mental disorder.” This helps
to confirm my statement on how Szas’ books brainwash can brainwash people, he wanted
political and social power, as well as privilege. Basically, using the disadvantage of those who
are mentally ill to help himself. Which in the long run, makes it even harder for people who are
mentally ill because society starts to not only agree with Szaz but antagonize those who are ill.
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The fact that many people are brainwashed because this belief was passed down by
religions and cultures throughout the generations, is what impacts our world so much today. For
example, mental health institutions and asylums have had such poor conditions for the patients
because they don’t actually care for these people. There’s been conditions as harsh as
electroshock therapy, and medications that worsen the illness. Mental health institutions have
basically become prisons for patients in need.
During the middle ages, many cultures considered mental illness as a form of religious
punishment or demonic possession. Conditions as minor as menstruation related anger were
considered a “mental illness” and people would then be punished for it. “Once people were
institutionalized, they would then be found chained to their beds and even abused, and patients
would be admitted in these institutions for years.”(Kroll) In current American society, the
number of people with psychiatric illnesses continue to rise, and many long-term-care facilities
no longer exist, leaving people who need support, homeless or even sent to prison. Mental
disabilities and mental health care have and are still being neglected when it comes to human
rights and equality for all patients. “Patients more likely to receive treatment for mental health
issues are mainly non-latino white males.”(Burns) A patient’s social, economic, political, and
cultural status seems to be a factor when it comes to receiving treatment, which is dreadful. In
America, people with mental illness suffer because they have to face discrimination and are often
stigmatized against, which is where cost issues come into place as well as lack of access to
qualified providers.
Negligence has been and is still being shown towards the mentally ill. “About 15 percent of state
prisoners and 24 percent of jail inmates are mentally ill”(Swanson) and these people are
incarcerated instead of receiving the treatment that they need. A New York Times reporter, Ana
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Swanson, argues that “ Inmates with mental illnesses are more likely than others to be held in
solitary confinement, and many are raped, commit suicide, or hurt themselves.”(Swanson) When
people with mental illnesses are more often held in solitary confinement than actual criminals
are, it creates a variety of problems. Eventually there will be over-population in these prisons,
allowing more criminals not having to face the law or any type of consequences leaving citizens
in a community that is unsafe. Also, these people are not mentally and emotionally equipped for
solitary confinement leading to suicide and self harm. Imprisoning the mentally ill should be
considered as brutal and dehumanizing. A large portion of the homeless population are
considered to be mentally ill as well. The disappearance of these long-term-care facilities as well
as their staff have given people more reason to believe that they are being stigmatized against
because it seems as if they are being restricted from treatment that they strongly deserve. This
has become the main reason as to why most of these people with mental disorders have been sent
to prison, are homeless, or are even dead. There is little awareness of this issue, which is how the
mentally ill are still being shown negligence today. A primary source says that “During the
course of this effort, a number of emerging trends surfaced and should be seen as a starting point
in the process of recasting the fragmented values of our current system.” (Steadmen and
Cocozza) Showing readers that there are multiple people that think the system that is set for
those who need treatment needs some sort of change and improvement. This source also talks
about how those that are mentally ill that do end up incarcerated, receive treatment from the
prison they are in, however the treatment that these people receive is often insufficient. Leading
to questions about these people ever receiving the treatment they deserve. It is just unfair for
people with mental disorders who may struggle to even provide and fend for themselves to have
to figure out how to survive in prison or without a home.
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People with mental disorders are often at a great disadvantage and are heavily
discriminated against. Society today usually limits the freedom of those who are mentally ill
which makes people question basic Human Rights. People with mental disorders are still people,
they are still human beings, just like everyone else, they deserve at least their own freedom.
Former director of biopsychosocial advocacy and current medical director/CEO, Eric Plakun
says that we owe the mentally ill “Freedom from stigma, Freedom from dehumanizing treatment,
Freedom to pursue recovery, and Freedom of access to medically necessary treatment” (Plakun).
Freedom from stigma meaning people with very severe mental disorders should be treated the
same as any other person with a mental illness. “Freedom from dehumanizing treatment,
meaning that people should not forget that these patients are still human beings and not
diagnostic categories or receptor sites for molecules.”(Plakun) These people are usually
emotionally unstable and need all the support they can get. When Plakun says these people
deserve the freedom to pursue recovery he was referring to every individual finding their purpose
in life and the meaning of their existence. Which seems like it may not be a very effective form
of freedom, but when a person knows their true worth they probably would not want to harm
themselves. Finally, freedom of access to medically necessary treatment is key, and means that a
patient should not have to worry about paying for treatment that is insanely expensive. Each
patient should have options of different types of treatments they could take instead of being
forced to take only one which may have many harmful side effects. Patients more likely to
receive treatment for mental health issues are mainly non-latino white males. A mental illness is
a mental illness regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other
status. A patient’s social, economic, political, and cultural standing should not have to be a factor
when it comes to receiving treatment. According to NCBI, “Racial and ethnic minorities have
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less access to mental health services than do whites. They are less likely to receive needed care.
When they receive care, it is more likely to be poor in quality.”(NCBI) Despite having the same
mental disorder as whites, minorities often recieve this type of discrimination. Minorities with
mental disorders are the majority of the percentage of the mentally ill who are homeless or
incarcerated as well. Whites are constantly put on a pedestal and are seen as superiority when it
comes to receiving treatment or anything in general. No patient should be given better treatment
than the other. When a person is mentally unstable they should receive the best form of treatment
there is.
Some may argue that the mentally ill actually do belong in a prison setting because it at
least keeps them off the streets and not homeless. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey says that “minimum, 25
percent of the American homeless—140,000 individuals—were seriously mentally ill at any
given point in time…As well as mental illness being the third largest cause of homelessness”
(Torrey). This piece of evidence indicates that not only is a large portion of the homeless
mentally ill but these disorders are considered serious. 25 percent is also the minimum, meaning
today statistics could be even worse and numbers could be higher. However, being incarcerated
is not any better. When a person is mentally ill it means they are not emotionally equipped for
solitary confinement and the dehumanizing conditions of a prison filled with criminals.
Criminals who do not know how to contain themselves and are probably incarcerated for a real
reason. Many of these people become targeted by these criminals and end up being raped, killed,
or even commit suicide. Incarcerating the mentally ill is just sick and it would lead to worse
outcomes than being homeless.
Mental health care is and has always been unfair, the healthcare system in general is just
viewed as having inadequate insurance policies. People often fall through the cracks of the
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healthcare process especially the mentally ill. Mental health care is severely neglected,
underfunded, and discriminated against. The system should be fixed, but it has had no type of
improvement no matter how many decades it has been whatsoever. If a rich person with a mental
illness needed some form of treatment they are more likely to get that treatment than a poor
person with a more severe illness would. Every ill person on this planet deserves the treatment
they need, they should not have to worry about becoming homeless or being sent to jail because
they cannot receive the treatment that they need to survive.

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