What is it about?
This study compared laws across the 50 United States to see how they "talk" about mental illness. The study searched for hundreds of laws on mental illness. Three questions were applied to the laws: (1) What words are used to describe mental illness? (2) Do laws talk about mental illness and the community? (3) How do laws talk about mental illness and the community? Overall, laws showed described people with mental illness as harmful to communities through two ways: (a) calling them dangerous; and (b) treating them as not a part of communities.
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Why is it important?
Understanding how humans treat each other is important. Humans may talk negatively about people with mental illness. Because humans ultimately create laws, they write this negative talk into laws. Accordingly, laws copy how humans talk about mental illness, at least across the United States.
Perspectives
I hold this study closely to my heart. It is one of my first sole author publications. I think it is important to speak kindly of people as much as possible, especially people from groups that have experienced difficult times in the journey of life.
Julio Montanez
University of Central Florida
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Discursive constructions of mental illness in statutes across the 50 United States., Stigma and Health, December 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/sah0000595.
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