If psychiatry had a buzz-word, it would be stigma. The term is everywhere. Anti-stigma is a constant fixture at medical conferences, on newspaper front-pages and in television bulletins. For good reason too: patients with psychiatric diagnoses have long been marginalised. Even within the medical profession, the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists was forced to launch a campaign to dissuade students and doctors from badmouthing the specialty.
But stigma is nebulous. It is difficult to define, hard to grasp and awkward to disentangle from psychiatry’s history. What does it mean to reduce stigma and how might we reconstruct a psychiatry without it?
Recent anti-stigma efforts have been led by brave pioneers disclosing their personal experiences of mental ill-health. Prince Harry, for example, shared his experience of anxiety and anger management followed by his brother, Prince William, who described his own struggle with bereavement. Elsewhere, celebrities recount stories of depression, stress and anxiety, while entire organisations have been founded to dispel taboos. One such organisation, Inside Out, publishes a list of corporate leaders each year who have shared their experiences of mental ill-health.
