Public Conceptions of Mental Illness in 1950 and 1996: What Is Mental Illness and Is It to be Feared?

TLDR

In the 1950s the public defined mental illness narrowly and feared it, but evidence suggests definitions have broadened and stigma may have lessened, though data gaps and persistent fear of psychosis remain. The study aimed to fill this gap by repeating the 1950 mental illness definition question in the 1996 General Social Survey. The 1996 General Social Survey’s Mental Health Module replicated the 1950 question to obtain nationally representative data. Results show that while conceptions broadened to include more non‑psychotic disorders, perceptions of violence and fear increased, especially among respondents who view mental illness as psychosis, with violent descriptions rising 2.5‑fold.

Abstract

In the 1950s, the public defined mental illness in much narrower and more extreme terms than did psychiatry, and fearful and rejecting attitudes toward people with mental illnesses were common. Several indicators suggest that definitions of mental illness may have broadened and that rejection and negative stereotypes may have decreased since that time. However, lack of comparable data over time prevents us from drawing firm conclusions on these questions. To address this problem, the Mental Health Module of the 1996 General Social Survey repeated a question regarding the meaning of mental illness that was first asked of a nationally representative sample in 1950. A comparison of 1950 and 1996 results shows that conceptions of mental illness have broadened somewhat over this time period to include a greater proportion of non-psychotic disorders, but that perceptions that mentally ill people are violent or frightening substantially increased, rather than decreased. This increase was limited to respondents who viewed mental illness in terms of psychosis. Among such respondents, the proportion who described a mentally ill person as being violent increased by nearly 2 1/2 times between 1950 and 1996. We discuss the possibility that there has been a real move toward acceptance of many forms of mental illness as something that can happen to one of us, but that people with psychosis remain a them who are more feared than they were half a century ago.