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Every Family in the Land: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination against People with Mental Illness Edited By Arthur Crisp. London: Sir Robert Mond Memorial Trust. 2001. Electronic book: 464 pp. Free on http://www.stigma.org/everyfamily CD–ROM: £11.75. ISBN 0 9541314 01

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Margaret Clayton*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Act Commission, Maid Marian House, 56 Hounds Gate, Nottingham NGI 6BG, UK
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Abstract

Type
Columns
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2003 

This collection of over 80 learned articles, personal perspectives and commentaries is designed to shed light on the most common mental disorders in the hope of dispelling some of the stigma which attaches to them. Produced as part of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' anti-stigma campaign ‘Changing Minds’, whose Chairman is the editor, it offers useful and often moving insights into the causes, experiences and misunderstanding of, and reactions to, what lies behind generic diagnoses such as personality disorder, schizophrenia, depression, dementia, eating disorders, and alcohol and drug misuse and the stigma that stems from the labels.

The joy and the novelty of this book is that it is freely available on the internet. Its scope is almost too large for a single book, so that the ability to search for the nuggets one wants rather than to start at the beginning and read to the end, is invaluable. Perhaps more importantly, although most of the articles will attract specialists in mental illness or those with experience of it, computerisation may tempt some of those less knowledgeable, who browse the internet as a pastime, to stray into the world of mental illness without the provocation of the sensationalist press, thus opening more minds to the realities rather than the myths of mental disorder.

A brief scan of the contents list high-lights the way in which the diverse mass of material has been helpfully clustered together. Each chapter has a theme which relates to all or most of the illnesses in question, underlining the commonality of stigmatising or other assumptions about all types of mental illness. The history of stigmatisation, its origins and strategies to deal with it are three examples of this grouping. Separate chapters cover the law and mental illness, creativity and mental disorder, and spirituality and mental illness. For me as a non-specialist reader, the chapter which had the most impact was Chapter 2, in which courageous individuals give mind-opening personal descriptions of what it is like to live with various mental disorders, and those who love and care for them, as well as experts, describe the effect of stigma on their everyday lives. This chapter above all brings home the title of the book: Every Family in the Land. Yesterday, today or tomorrow, this might be your family. This book is available without cost as an invaluable resource to which you can turn at will.

References

EDITED BY SIDNEY CROWN and ALAN LEE

Edited by Arthur Crisp. London: Sir Robert Mond Memorial Trust. 2001. Electronic book: 464 pp. Free on http://www.stigma.org/everyfamily CD — ROM: £11.75. ISBN 0 9541314 0 1

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