Meaning of the Term Mental Illness among PsychiatricPatients

Overview

The aim of our paper was with the aid of two methods devised by us, to obtain a picture of themeaning of the term mental illness among psychiatric patients, both on a general level and inrelation to their own psychiatric diagnosis. The results indicate that psychiatric patients havea generally negative meaning of the term mental illness, a meaning that emphasises in particularthe social isolation, sadness, depressive frame of mind, and the sense of suffering and helplessnessfelt by these individuals and also, feelings that are reminiscent of their own negative qualities. Wefound that these attributes were particularly marked among patients suffering from affectivedisorders. These findings are interpreted on the basis of socio-psychiatric theories about theprocess of stigmatising mental disorders, creating the status of mental illness and laymen’s ste-reotypes about the mentally ill.

Key words:
mental meaning (concept), status of illness, stigmatisation, stereotypes of the mentallyill, self-image.