Stereotypical misconceptions

There are three commonly held stereotypical misconceptions that provide the three elements that underpin the public’s stigmatised attitudes toward the mentally ill: authoritarianism, benevolence and fear.177 Authoritarianism is responsible for generating the greatest number of misconceptions such as the belief that only weak or feeble people who lack direction in life become mentally ill; they are lazy; only the elderly suffer from depression; the person themself is responsible for becoming

174

A number of contemporary identity theorists using a Self/Other dichotomy, distinguish the Other from the Self as a way of distinguishing one person from another.

175

Allison C Carey, On the Margins of Citizenship (Temple University Press, 2009).

176

Pauline Prior, ‘Citizenship and Mental Health Policy in Europe’ (2007) 5 Social Work and Society 115, 117. ‘The overwhelming message from people with mental illnesses is that they are not functioning as full citizens’.

177 _{Corrigan and Watson, above n 2. See also Patrick W Corrigan, Amy Kerr and Lissa Knudsen, ‘The stigma of}

mental illness: Explanatory models and methods for change’ (2005) 11 Applied and Preventive Psychology, 179. Also Paul E Holmes et al., ‘Changing attitudes about schizophrenia’ (1999) 25 Schizophrenia Bulletin 447.

mentally ill;178 and the application of sufficient willpower can cure psychopathological problems.179

The second element is benevolence in which people with a mental illness are deemed helpless. They are naïve and inexperienced and possess a child-like perceptionof the world.180 Their non-conforming free spirit is simply indicative of their irresponsibility which necessitates the state’s intervention to ensure that acceptable and appropriate life decisions are made on their behalf. State

intervention is commonly confined to two aspects of the free spirit’s life: control of their finances181 and their forcible treatment182 although it can extend to other decision-making areas such as deciding where the person lives,183 who they are allowed to associate with,184 and whether they can work and where.185 Having a childlike mentality enables the state’s intervention in its authorisation of the statutory appointment of a benevolent guardian (often a state employee)186 whose function is to ensure the proper provision of care and protection for the person.187 In practice, guardians often usurp most, if not all of the significant decision-making rights previously exercised by the person. Viewed from a benevolent approach, people experiencing mental illness are non-conformists, living by their own life plan, unconstrained by society's conventions and lacking in worth as a contributor to the common good.

The final stereotypical misconception is fear. The qualities of dangerousness and unpredictability attributed to people experiencing a mental illness dictate

apprehensiveness and avoidance in the stigmatiser. To minimise public risk,

178

Attitudes to Mental Illness - 2011 survey report, published by The Health and Social Care Information Centre, NHS, United Kingdom, June 2011. In this survey, 16 per cent of respondents believe that one of the main causes of mental illness is lack of self-discipline and will-power. Mental Health America Attitudinal Survey in 2007 found that 22% of Americans believed that depression is a personal weakness.

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go//go/news/10-year-retrospective-study-shows-progress-in-american- attitudes-about-depression-and-other-mental-health-issues.

179

Adrian Furnham and Susan Henley, ‘Lay Beliefs about Overcoming Psychological Problems’ (1988) 6

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 423. See also Chris R Brewin and Adrian Furnham, ‘Attributional pre-attributional variables in self-esteem and depression: comparison and test of learned helplessness theory’ (1986) 50 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1013.

180 _{Nicolas Rüsch, Matthias C Angermeyer and Patrick W Corrigan, ‘Mental illness stigma: Concepts,}

consequences, and initiatives to reduce stigma’ (2005) 20 European Psychiatry 529, 530.

181_{Guardianship and Administration Act 1995 (Tas) s 51.} 182

Mental Health Act 1996 (Tas) s 32(2).

183

Guardianship and Administration Act 1995 (Tas) s 25(2)(a).

184 Ibid s 25(2)(d). 185 _{Ibid s 25(2)(c).} 186 Ibid s 14. 187 Ibid s 15.

jurisdictions have enacted extraordinary civil commitment laws which give power to police to enter premises without warrant188 so as to take health clients into custody and forcibly transport them to hospitals and health centres for involuntary psychiatric assessment and treatment;189 admit the ill, non-criminal to secure forensic mental health units;190 and deprive individuals of their liberty indefinitely, without trial.191 Benevolence legislation spreads its authoritative umbrella over the mentally impaired but because society does not fear or loathe the demented elderly, intellectually disabled, or people with an acquired brain injury, the state does not impose the same level of restrictive and controlling power over these groups that it does over the ‘mentally ill’ group.

All three misconceptions result in the authority of the state meted through its instrument, the law, to forcefully deprive individuals of their fundamental rights to liberty, bodily integrity and autonomous decision-making via involuntary and coerced treatment regimes, and civil commitment and guardianship legal processes. Authoritarianism supports the expectation that the individual should willingly engage in their treatment and they are sufficiently blamed to justify their legal compulsion. Benevolence and fear support the framework of laws that reduce the status of the adult person experiencing a mental illness to that of a vulnerable, erratic and threatening child requiring special management by the parent - the state – which both mirrors and reinforces the public stereotypical views that normal people need to distance themselves from the abnormality of mental illness.