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E-PrinceThis fall Break, I took the train up to New York with seven other Princeton students on a Pace Center-sponsored Breakout Princeton trip to learn about the particular stigmas associated with mental illness. We spent nights in sleeping bags on ...(back to the article)
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This sounds like it was a really amazing experience. I've heard really good things about the breakout trips. Thanks for sharing this!
This fall Break, I took the train up to New York with seven other Princeton students on a Pace Center-sponsored Breakout Princeton trip to learn about the particular stigmas associated with mental illness
I am not sure who taught you there were stigmas associated with mental illnesses, but please set the belief aside. It is a prejudice. Expressing it in print is a prejudice validated by a journalist, as once journalists associated it with other groups.
mental health care "consumers" — the term patients use for themselves rather than “patient” or “the mentally ill"
No, I am Harold, I call myself Harold, and under no circumstances would I abstract myself to "consumer," that is Ralph Nader's arena.
No, I am Harold, I (like you) am a patient only in direct relation with a doctor.
Harold A. Maio, retired Mental Health Editor
Ft Myers FL 33907
khmaio@earthlink.net
It is an unfortunately true that those with mental illness often face stigma. To acknowledge this is not condone it, so I don't know what makes you think Sophie's column exhibits prejudice.
Aside from his point about "stigma"/"prejudice," which I think was unnecessary (they're the same thing) Harold makes a great point: we're talking about people that are only "patients" in their direct relationship with their doctor. When you have the flu, you are not an "influenzac," you are a person that happens to have a medical condition. This condition is not part of your identity; while it is true that you may have to spend a significant amount of time and energy coping with its symptoms, you don't define yourself in terms of it. Identifying someone as some victim identity is counter-productive, not least in that it encourages both self-pity and differentiation of them from others.
i wish to thank the authors of this article for their openness, their awareness, and their sensitivity.