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Stigma and Fear: The ‘Psy Professional’ in Cultural Artifacts
Author(s) -
Hopson Jacqueline
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12441
Subject(s) - psychology , humanity , stigma (botany) , popular media , comics , social psychology , psychiatry , media studies , sociology , law , political science
The loss of reason called madness[Note 1. Though largely abandoned in scholarly discussion, I make a ...] provokes perhaps the greatest human fear, for it is reason that dignifies humanity and separates us from beasts. The ‘psy professionals’[Note 2. I use this term as a collective noun which ...] – those who prescribe and administer treatments for madness – are frequently portrayed in fiction, film, comics, computer games and entertainments, along with the mad themselves and the asylums that confine them. Overall, these depictions are malign: the reader/watcher/player is encouraged to fear the mad, the madhouse and the mad‐doctor. Choosing to use less abrasive vocabulary to name the condition of madness makes no difference to the terror the condition arouses, for the content of many books and games aims to inspire fear. In spite of considerable efforts over many years, the stigma which attaches to mental illness remains firmly in place for patients, while psy professionals also carry their share of ‘some of the discredit of the stigmatized’ and join patients in a stigmatized group. Popular belief often equates the psy professions with madness. This paper explores ways in which the fear of madness, and the stigma which clings to sufferers and their professional carers, is perpetuated by a constant stream of popular cultural artifacts.