The Revolution of the Stigma of the Mentally Ill in Singapore

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Recommended: media effects on stereotypes

There are approximately 450 million people suffering from a mental disorder worldwide at any given time. These patients are often described with adjectives such as “unstable” and “violent”, even though these words may not be spoken out loud in society. In fact, a research conducted by BMC Health Services Research on 14-year-old students in England, states that the top three words used to describe them are “disturbed”, “nuts” and “confused”. (Rose and Thornicroft et al. 97) This may have partly stemmed from media industries, such as Hollywood. Hollywood has “benefitted from long-standing and lurid fascination with psychiatric illness” by choosing to portray people with mental illnesses such as Norman Bates, in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho”, as a psychotic killer and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in Jonathan Demme’s movie “Silence of the Lamb” as a cannibalistic psychiatrist. (Friedman)

In Singapore alone, 1 of every 10 people suffers from a mental illness, with the most common illness being depression. It was estimated to happen to 170,000 adults with a ratio of more woman than men. Other less common but significant illnesses are alcohol abuse as well as Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD).

In the early years of Singapore, when she was a part of the British colony, taking care of the mentally ill was not a matter of great importance. The first ever request that a mental institution is to be built in Singapore was sent to John Hanson, whom had been staying in this country for five years, in 1828. Prior to that, the medical needs of the natives in Singapore were not of priority to the British colony. However, even after the request was sent, no institution for the mentally ill was set up and the system of putting the more dangerous ...

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...ian." Citizenhistorian.com, 2013. Web. 10 Dec 2013. .
"The Institute Of Mental Health (IMH): Mental Health Woes In Singapore." guanyinmiao's musings, 2011. Web. 13 Dec 2013. .
Ng, Beng Yeong. HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY IN SINGAPORE. n.d. 1. E-book.
Rose, Diana, Graham Thornicroft, Vanessa Pinfold and Aliya Kassam. "250 labels used to stigmatise people with mental illness." BMC Health Services Research, 7. 1 (2007): 97. Web. 12 Dec 2013.
Unknown. "Eight Floor Death Jump." The Straits Times, 25 December. 1970: 17. Print.
"Institute of Mental Health (Singapore)." Wikipedia, 2013. Web. 13 Dec 2013. .

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