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l'Information Psychiatrique. Volume 83, Number 10, 801-5, décembre 2007, stigma (2)

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Author(s) : Sylvie Parrini-Alemanno

Summary : The processes of communication in society’s representations of mental health.Given the security afforded by the incessant interweaving of representations and the need for each player to keep to the same code, it would seem worthwhile to study the “intention” of the player or the “guidance” (tyranny?) of representations in stigmatising mental health, at the same time examining its corollary, the danger of changing a system which has achieved a balance, albeit at the expense of some of its players. The system of representations contains the resistance to change with regard to scientific knowledge and information. The WHO survey clearly sets out the mechanics of exclusion which refer back more and more, by degree of perceived imbalance, to the family which is willing to look after one of its members. To identify social representation of mental health as a communicational process is to include all players in the system responsible for the attitude of exclusion. This systemic point of view inherited from the Palo Alto school, revived and reworked recently by Alex Mucchielli, emphasises the importance of the processes of contextualisation – in which we resituate the effects of changes in attitude – of institutional recognition, of the media, as well as the emotional process based on the family model. Communicational configurations aimed at changing these attitudes act on stigmatisation and the associated standpoints.

Keywords : mental health, stigmatization, social representation, communication