Sociology Of Mental Illness

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The stigma associated with mental illness is resided in a long, unfortunate history of socially and culturally sculpted abuse and discrimination. This has resulted in many negative effects on those suffering from mental illnesses. Throughout this history, drastic evolutions of social, cultural and scientific understandings took place, which ultimately led to improved knowledge of mental illnesses. Today, mental illness or mental disorder is defined as “a mental or bodily condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, and emotions to seriously impair the normal psychological functioning of the individual” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). The WHO (2014) defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual …show more content…
Personality disorders are comprised of three major clusters based on the DSM-V: odd/eccentric (cluster A), dramatic/emotional/erratic (cluster B) and anxious/fearful (cluster C). Cluster A is characterized by social awkwardness and social withdrawal and includes paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders. Cluster B is characterized by the lack of ability to control impulses and emotions and includes antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic and borderline personality disorders. Lastly, cluster C is characterized by an extremely high level of anxiety and includes avoidant, obsessive-compulsive and dependent personality disorders (Hoermann, Zupanick, & Dombeck, …show more content…
Reasons for this stigma include that mental disorders can be “feigned” to achieve specific ends, which further implies that the behaviours associated with mental illness can and should be controlled (Duffin, 2010). Typically, stigma takes the form of stereotyping, distrust, fear or avoidance and can negatively impact the pursuit of treatment, employment and income, self-worth, and families (Whalen, n.d.). Individuals with mental illness are commonly labelled as a result of their appearance, behaviour, treatment, socioeconomic status, and also due to the negative depictions of mental illness in the media (Scheffer,

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