SOC 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Social Distance, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2070
• Professor: Parnaby

Document Summary

We assume that we will not be able to understand them. Afraid these people will just stab you (?) Assumption we have that everything should be intelligible. Stereotype: mentally ill prone to unintelligible speech & action. Schizophrenia, serious/severe anxiety disorders, severe depression, dementia etc. Most mentally ill are perfectly functional, sensible, & entirely predictable. We assume mentally ill are incompetent (at home, work etc. ) Most lead productive, goal directed, creative lives (rogers & pilgrim 2005) Assume mentally ill are prone to violence (link et al. Vast majority are not violent (rogers & pilgrim 2005) Our collective fear is disproportionate to the nature of the risk. In order to say this, we must think there"s an appropriate level of fear. The media connect psychosis & violence (usa, can, uk, germany, etc. ) Children"s literature: mentally ill as dirty, violent, criminal, failures (wahl 2003)