Mental Health Stigma and the Media

Dr. Matthew A. Sadlier MB, BCh, BAO, B(med)Sc, MRCPI, MICGP,

MRCPsych

The Eagleton Affair

Scandal

or

Stigma?

1972

George McGovern(Democratic candidate)

• Amnesty

• Abortion

• Acid

Thomas Eagleton1929-2007

• Graduate Harvard Law School

• 1956-Circuit court attorney (St. Louis)

• 1960- Missouri Attorney General

• 1964-Missouri Lieutenant Governor

• 1968-US Senator

The Scandal

• After 1960 campaign for attorney general of Missouri, he was hospitalized in St. Louis voluntarily for about four weeks for "exhaustion and fatigue.”

• Admissions to the Mayo Clinic in 1964 & 1966.

• 1960 and 1966, he underwent electric-shock therapy for depression.

• "I have every confidence that I've learned how to pace myself and know the limits of my own endurance."

Timeline

• 13th of July at 2am Thomas Eagleton was appointed running mate.

• 25th of July Admitted to hospitalisations

• 31st of July stepped down

Quotes

• "They will all see him standing eyeball to eyeball with Russia & then going out and getting shock treatment."

1972 Election Results

President Vice-President

Party Votes % College Votes

Richard Nixon

Spiro Agnew

R 47,168,710 60.7% 520

George McGovern

Sargent Shriver

D 29,173,222 37.5% 17

Thomas Eagleton

• Re-elected to the US Senate in 1974 and 1980

• War Powers Act• Bombing of

Cambodia

Thomas Eagleton

• 1984:– Announced he would not seek re-election

• “Public office should not be held in perpetuity”

• Post-Senate career– Appointed to board of Chicago Mercantile

Exchange• Decisions were made “by insiders and for

insiders”

Mental Health Stigma

• Stigma:– A mark of disgrace or discredit that sets a person

aside from others (Byrne 2001).– Stigmatisation is the process wherein one condition

or aspect of an individual is attributionally linked to some pervasive dimension of the target person's identity (Mansouri & Dowell 1989).

– Results in marginalisation, exclusion and the exercise of power over individuals.

– Physical illness, Mental illness, Intellectual disability, Physical disability, Race, Gender, Sexuality or Religion.

Mental Health Stigma

Historical Stigma:

“Western societies have always linked ideas of morality and virtue with health and reason, and early Christian societies tainted madness with images of the demonic, the perverse, the promiscuous and the sinful” (Schlosberg, 1993)

Mental Health Stigma

• Models of Stigma:– “Cognitive Behavioural model”

• Cognitive process (labeling/Stereotyping):• Behavioural process (Division/Discrimination)

– Cognitive Social Model:• People hold beliefs of their society (mental illness “bad”)• Those who develop mental illness thus believe they are

bad (“Uncle Tom”).

Types of Stigma

• Public Stigma:– Majority of population in USA and Western Europe

has a negative opinion of mental illness (Phelan et al 2000; Bhurga 1989).

– Attitudes are in three clusters (Brockinton 2000)• Fear and exclusion• Authoritarianism (decisions should be made by others)• Benevolence: (childlike and need to be cared for).

Types of Stigma

• Structural Stigma:– Structures and Institutions based upon the

society’s beliefs:• Restrict peoples right to vote, marry etc..etc..

– Mental Health Legislation:• Stigma? or Necessary Protection?

– Charities/Mental Health Commission:• Sympathy/Empathy/Patronising?

Types of Stigma

• Self Stigma:– Patients can develop different attitudes:– Righteous indignation v’s Low self esteem

(Corrigan & Watson 2002).• Patients get energised and become active

participants in their treatment and campaigners.• Patients develop low self esteem, become

isolated, avoid treatment.

Why does Stigma surround mental health.

• Ignorance/Fear

• Misinformation/Confusion

• Anti-Psychiatry

• “Lack of role models”

• Media/Language Reporting

Media Reporting

• Media as a reflection of society has helped to sustain a distorted view of mental health.

• Significant difference between how physical illness and mental illness is reported.

• TV and Film characters with mental illness often portrayed as violent, untrustworthy, “evil”

• Use of stigmatising language goes unchecked; “Schizo”, “Psychotic”, “Lunatic”

Media Reporting

– Closing the asylums “the relocation of madness” brought about a community backlash and the reality of former patients leading isolated community-based

existences (Barham & Hayward, 1995).

Media Reporting

• Suicide:– Responsible reporting of suicide.– Guidelines published by Samaritans and Irish

Society of Suicidology– Copy Cat Suicide/Suicide Clusters– 13% of teenage suicides occur in clusters– TV coverage of Suicide/Self Harm can prompt

copy cat acts (Hawton et al 1999)• “death of a student”.

– Language and reporting.

Combating Stigma

• Neurobiology

• Better understanding/treatments

• Improved services

• Responsible reporting/media

• Leadership role (patient/doctor)

• “The long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of it being right”

» Thomas Paine; Common Sense.