That is a post-modernist aproach Bradley. Not all mental illnesses are social constructions. My point is: how to quantify perceptions about mental illnesses? That would be a starting ground.

Hello,

Is "Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ)" of any interest?:

Luty, J., Umoh, O., Sessay, M., & Sarkhel, A. (2007). Effectiveness of Changing Minds campaign factsheets in reducing stigmatised attitudes towards mental illness. The Psychiatrist, 31(10), 377-381.

Full text:

http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/31/10/377

Data supplement:

http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/pbrcpsych/suppl/2007/10/02/31.10.377.DC1/pb_31_Ds377.pdf

This is the RG link, but not full text:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237609448

Very best wishes,

Mary

Interesting...

Thank you so much Mary.

Best regards,

Pedro Correia

Thank you for kind information.

There are at least three intractable problems in reducing fear and distain even hostility towards mental illness which we should take for granted

1 The brain is not a tool like ,say hands or legs , It is US. 2.fear that we too will get it ,given the conflictual aspects of human nature and the confysing ifiness of out inner life .3.mentally ill fellow humans are unpleasant since invariably their premorbid personality emanates evolutionary from the a-social aspects of human nature self absorbed unconnectable with dearth of altruism or empathy .Remember the term of The narssisistic neuroses of SFreud . People lie in their responses . Education and placing Mentally in a Belgian community-like will help .of course mentally ill have no political cloud .

Generally I would not respond, but I can't let Dr Pediaditakis's post stand. I agree with his first point, partially with the second and must simply reject the third point.

It is not true that persons with a mental illness are "unpleasant since invariably their premorbid personality emanates from an evolutionary for....." First this is simply objectively false; certainly it is false in terms of my patients, friends and family amongst whom are those who have suffered from mental illness. They are no more or less unpleasant than the rest of us can be.

Many countries have been successful in reducing stigma and fear of persons with mental illness, but the struggle continues (see the work of mental health commissions in countries such as NZ, Australia, Canada and the UK).

A response like that of Dr Pediaditakis does not help.

Dr. Nicholas’ Corner: Let’s Talk About Geniuses January 15, 2018 Dr Nicholas Pediaditakis editorial “There is no genius without a touch of madness”  Aristotle  Indeed, all very creative people do behave oddly. Often defined as weird, we even use in describing them other more pedestrian terms; such as, nutty, etc. Let us first define genius as one who is able to think in alternatives, discern new patterns in nature, create novel products for our own comfort and survival, or emotionally resonating to us things such as pieces of art, literature or music.or successfully lead people according to his/her aims by intuitively being able to harness group phenomena and their frustrations whatever they may be, and redirect them to archive his/her own aims for power but not necessarily for the group r benefit. All geniuses invariably have an extreme and  lopsided personality/temperament from birth. They are secretly aloof, self-centered, not easily connected emotionally with other fellow humans even though they can hide that with learned exuberance or civility. They are often explosive, moody, or unusually exuberant or express odd and often to us incomprehensible thinking or behavior. In fact, it has become apparent in our observations and studies that such personality- temperament configuration of genius is not only necessary but crucial as an enabling factor for expressing creativity, providing of course are also intelligent, persistent, and curious. In fact, many of them on account of their extremely odd temperament end up with a mental condition as well. Not all people with this personality become genius, but all geniuses have the lopsided autonomous inner-directed personality of the above-mentioned type acting as the enabling factor. An example was Nicola Tesla, who created the very useful ways for electricity, like alternating current — among many others, discoveries about which he was also very secretive, often “paranoiac,” and reportedly in love, for all things, with a pigeon! Another example was Steve Jobs who created a new reality for communication and entertainment with Apple computer. He was intense, explosive, and suffered from mood swings. Recently, a genius — on the same level of Leonardo Da Vinci of 15th century — named Elon Musk created and is creating technologies that are already changing the world and our future, is also publicly self-confessed as bipolar. All the above are a public record. Geniuses come in a variety of types. In addition to the technologically advanced geniuses mentioned above, others like Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt were geniuses in leadership. They both had personality profiles of bipolar. They were able to demonstrate what it takes. One to restructure our country like Theodore Roosevelt by eliminating disparity of wealth and the other kept a country safe from defeat and destruction like Winston Churchill, while Amadeus Mozart created heavenly music that leaves a mark on all of us.yet with mood swings became an alcoholic died a pauper. Geniuses can come from anywhere:  Aristóteles the teacher of Alexander from a little village in Greece named Stagira; Nikola Tesla from a little village in Croatia named Smiljan; and the biological father of Steve Jobs an Arab-Muslim from Syria. Recently, the term “stable genius” was expressed in the news media. Well, there is no such a thing as a “stable genius”. Read about Alexander the Great who killed his beloved friend in a fit of anger and then cried for days and later died from alcoholism in Babylon in the 4th century BC. Winston Churchill, in addition to being continually drunk during world war two, foolishly and irrationally declared Greece the soft underbelly of Europe and as the First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1915 he brought 50,OOO ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) troops from the other side of the world to fight unknown people in a land they did no know even existed, Turkey. This resulted in the meaningless deaths of more than 20,000 of them in the Gallipoli campaign. The above underscore the fickle unpredictable and potential dangerous behavior of leader genius for those he leads. Over the years, I was myself interested in the matter of geniuses and even published an article with my findings concerning the subject on my blog. chroniclersofthesoul.com Copyright © 2018 by Nicholas Pediaditakis, MD

An additional note ;

The first task in helping is to ascertain the truth, your strong objection is telling; -especially since normally you will not respond- do us humans have a blind eye when come to study ourselves perhaps evolutionary nessecery to function as conflictual beings?my compassion and affection are for them who are like condemned Jobs unaware for the charges . I meant asocial and alienated, one has to subsidize their aloofness with my warm regards Dr Simpson

Be that as it may, Dr Pediaditakis , that was not what you said in your first reply. The original question was about public perception of mental illness, not about genius. And your comments that they are "unpleasant" etc were not warranted.

As I explained in the editorial, both genius (and to a more modified degree and with mixed traits a lot more individuals insuring temperamental variability hence flexibility and robustness of the tribe/band ) and the sufferers posses a-social lopsided temperament ; emotional distance ,distain for social interactions ,lack of empathy and altruism reticence to participate in social interactions unpredictable in emotionality and have to socially be subtilized in social interactions over all are unpleasant producing discomfort and avoidance by members of the group .Importantly such a-social lopsided temperament is crucial for the expression of creativity as an enabling factor ,but some will end mentally ill as well like Isaac Newton and many others The relatively few mentally ill with the persistent prevalence of 6%world -wide in spite of their evolutionary unfitness, ( They become ill young , die young, and have low fecundity ) is representing anevolutionary down side trade off .thus the paradox is explained regards Nicholas P

I am not sure you should be so quick to thank the interlocutors of this debate, Pedro!

Throwing up a few historical references hoping they will magically land in the right place and citing some disembodied and rather meaningless numbers does not add up to a coherent argument, Dr. Pediaditakis! What, precisely, is your argument? What do you mean by key notions of "genius" and "madness" (or in another version "sufferers") in your attempt to mount an argument? And in passing, this is a scholarly site. I understand that some people are not writing in their mother tongue (as I am not), but some minimal attention to spelling and grammar would indicate that you have actually thought about what you want to say.

As for this old canard about genius and madness, this has been dealt with by specialists in the field. First of all, the term "madness" has no precision whatsoever, and in the usual quick translation of madness into psychosis and schizophrenia, that notion has been roundly rejected in academic psychology and psychiatry. Perhaps by "genius" you mean creativity at a high or highly productive and original level? The link between creativity and controlled phases of elevated mood, sometimes as profound as versions of bipolar mood disorders has been explored fruitfully but is still open to critically important definitional and measurement issues.

I really expect a more informed and clearly argued discussion on a scholarly site - as Mary CR Wilson offered here - not a poorly constructed rehash of the most unreflective nonsense at the level of tabloid journalism.

Vincenzo Di Nicola, MD, PhD

Psychiatrist & Philosopher

University of Montreal &

The George Washington University

You are correct Doctor Di Nicola. I have since rectified the situation.

Best regards.

Assume for arguments sake that the distribution of human behavior follows some kind of modified multidimensional bell curve distribution. Assume also for arguments sake that regions, nations, cultures, religions have different tolerances for different sets of behaviors. If these assumptions are valid, an individual perceived to be mentally unwell in some social, cultural, or theological settings and not in others. If this is the case mental illness is in large part a perceived condition from the observes frame of reference which will vary depending on the frame, not the individual.

That is a post-modernist aproach Bradley. Not all mental illnesses are social constructions. My point is: how to quantify perceptions about mental illnesses? That would be a starting ground.

Nor did i say all were social constructions. What you are looking for, I would think, are the principal components of perception, one of which would be social.....

I agree with that Bradley. 100%

There is a social/cultural macro-variable to include.

This is a fascinating exchange between Bradley and Pedro.

The variations are not only in the perceptions of but in the lived reality of everything human and that is part of the cultural diversity of humanity. Social and transcultural psychiatry has made a significant contribution in this area. I will outline this in a later post.

Regards,

Vincenzo Di Nicola

I look forward to your later post Doctor Vincenzo.

Best regards.

Community Attitudes towards Mentally Ill (CAMI) developed by Dear and Taylor (1979). Though it is old but is being still used by researchers.

Link for the scale homepage:

https://camiscale.com/

Thank you for your input Sandesh.

Best regards

Here is a research proposal that includes a questionnair on mental health:

Research Proposal Saúde Mental: Análise da responsabilidade do Estado, de inst...

Dear Pedro, I am planning a similar project, Your discussion above is seven months' old. I wonder if there were any tools or methods that you found useful/helpful after undergoing all above discussions and explorations. Kindly consider sharing if you don't mind. Best wishes

Pedro Miguel Alves Ribeiro Correia

Dear Salman, the masters dissertation of my student will be defended this month. It will be made available in Researchgate in the next few days. Maybe you can find something interesting there.

Best regards,

Pedro Correia

Pedro Miguel Alves Ribeiro Correia

Thanks very much for a quick response.

would you be able to advise that where would I be able to find that stuff on ResearchGate? i.e. would that be available in future under any specific name or heading?

Many regards

Hello Salman, I will let you know as soon as it is available.

Best regrads,

Pedro Correia

Thanks very much, it’s deeply appreciated.

Salman,

Here you go: Thesis Políticas Públicas e Saúde Mental: análise da perceção dos cidadãos

Best regrads,

Pedro Correia

Thanks again

I shall find a colleague or friend to help me understand.

kind regards and wishes

You are welcome Salman. You can get a reasonable translation of the work and questionnaire via Google and you can check the references for inspiration.

Best regrads,

Pedro Correia