I was very nervous when my editorial about schizophrenia — there we go, a word I ought not to be using — appeared Open Access online in the December 2010 Journal of Mental Health (published by Informa Healthcare, New York). It contains personal details which it is not customary to reveal. Having got over that I had more anxiety when the printed journal was delayed by a month for unknown reasons. Now that it’s out I am calm again.
Why should I not be using the ‘S’ word? What’s in a name?
The answer is that it has acquired a stigma in the course of a hundred years owing to the small minority of people with our condition who are violent and attack or kill other people.
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Will giving schizophrenia a new name really change the public notion of it as a dangerous disease? I think that will take a long time. And, of course, the few dangerous people now diagnosed with schizophrenia would later also be diagnosed with whater the new name becomes.
I am puzzled about the description of this author.
“Despite his handicap” seems odd given he had a successful career that he is now retired from. It seems that even if one is able to have a career–psychcentral is still saying the author is handicapped because he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. A diagnosis is not in and of itself a handicap. Please don’t perpetuate stigma, and the narrow and inaccurate perception that a diagnosis of schizophrenia means a person is handicapped, those who have successful careers obviously have RECOVERY more than they are “handicapped!”
Just as bipolar is referenced as bipolar, once known as manic-depression, schizophrenia will be associated with any new name invented. In the past, idiot and imbecile were medical terms for mental retardation, not call developmental delays or cognitive impairment in education. Everyone knows they are other terms for mental retardation. Any new name coined for schizophrenia will be associated with “crazy, dangerous” people by virtue of the media.
It seems that the issue at hand is if the word schizophrenia contains enough latin to cover the wide breadth of what the disease usually demonstrates as symptoms. To me, as one who has b een diagnosed with the illness, it does not. I like the author agree that it is far past time for psychologists to develope a kinder, gentler machine gun hand of language when dealing with this illness.
On the Becky Murphy comment:
Let me first say that the author is my life partner and I am therefore not strictly objective.
I think the point here is that at the present the very diagnosis schizophrenia is a handicap. Doors have a tendency of remaining closed to one with this diagnosis – the author has had a career despite this (although it was far from easy at times)but to many this is not possible – not because they couldn’t cope with their condition but because as soon as in a job interview the diagnosis comes out, or when a career is interrupted by a psychosis, the employer doesn’t want to know. I believe the diagnosis schizophrenia is a handicap even if the condition is not. Not everyone is so lucky to find a job, a partner etc where people are prepared to look beyond that diagnosis.
Interesting article. It seems to me that the medical model pathologizes people with mental health issues, and until we get beyond this model and develop and/or adopt a better form of diagnosis and treatment, there will continue to be signficant stigma. I’d like to see groups like NAMI continue to educate the general population about the people who suffer from the kind so symtoms associated with schizophrenia. Many people, in part due to the media, believe people with psychosis are more likely to be violent than the general pop, but this isn’t true. Most people with schizophrnia withdraw, isolate, and stay away from others because they are trying to protect themselves from the bombardment that comes with voices, delusions, etc. Note: I work as a clinical case manager in an agency that serves the homeless. My particular role is to help people with a major mental illness dx to help find housing, attain benefits, attain MH tx, etc. I am inspired by my clients’ resiliency, strength, and desire for health and wellness.
A name change alone changes nothing. For example, my peers and I in the public mental health system have been referred to as patients, recipients, clients, consumers, prosumers and self-advocates. We have lived through the successive eras of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Best Practices, Evidence Based Practices, Person Centered Care, Recovery, Wellness, and most recently the Era of Wellness & Recovery.
Name changes are mere salesperson’s puffery when words and the deeds – here as access to treatment, services and supports which make a difference and are evidenced by superior outcomes – fail to intersect.
Sadly, it’s deja vu all over again.
I appreciate the authors ideas and insight especially as one who knows first hand. As a step mom to a beautiful son who has now passed from complications of schitzophrenia, I don’t think a different name will dispell the fear and ignorance of those who know little or none at at all of the disorder. I think awareness and education, outreach and support, treatment and recovery are key. Hoping to do just that, since my sons death we have started a facebook page: Mental Health Awareness-Fishing for a cure.
While I know this is a tiny thing, it’s worth noting that the acronym “DPS” can also stand for “damage per second” in the gaming world (which is now fairly wide spread). Probably not the best acronym to get away from the perception of those with the S word as violent…