*Please note that the event has changed locations and that it will now take place in Room A-3316 of the Hubert-Aquin Pavilion at UQÀM, located at 400 rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montréal, Québec.

The Interuniversity Research Group on Normativity (GRIN) is pleased to welcome Miriam Solomon (Temple University), who will give a talk entitled “Stigma as an Actant in the History of Psychiatric Disorder”.

The conference will also be available via Zoom.

Abstract

The slogan “end the stigma” has become pervasive in mental health contexts. It makes a straightforward suggestion: if we can counter social prejudices about mental illness then we will be able to address mental illness more effectively and humanely. It is reminiscent of other medical-social movements such as the ones to reduce the stigma of breast cancer, beginning in the 1970s with Betty Ford’s openness about her own diagnosis and treatment and continuing with the work of advocacy groups such as Susan G. Komen and the National Breast Cancer Coalition to successfully fund and implement programs for early detection and intervention.

I signed on to “end the stigma” for mental illness a long time ago. However, in learning more about the history of mental health stigma, both in general and for particular conditions, I have found that stigma is a slippery beast that is often imperfectly managed by efforts that implicitly or unconsciously result in further stigmatization of some or all mental health conditions. It is not easy, and may not even be possible, to “end the stigma.” In addition, I have found that stigmatizing judgments run so deep that they have influenced professional judgments about the scope of psychiatric disorder and about the categories of psychiatric disorder. Stigma is not added to some neutral medical categories by a prejudiced society; rather, stigma was involved in making the categories themselves.