"Written by participants and first-rate social scientists in the Chicago Consortium for Stigma Research, On the Stigma of Mental Illness: Practical Strategies for Research and Social Change explores the causes and ramifications of mental illness stigma and possible means to eliminate it. The book translates basic behavioral research, especially from social psychology, to an issue of prime importance to clinical psychology." "At the core of many problems facing people with mental illness is public reaction to their disabilities (e.g., landlords may not rent to and employers may not hire someone with a serious mental illness). The authors explore the causes of such stigmatizing attitudes, including media images and a culture that does not respect people with mental illness. Living within such a culture often leads to self-stigmatization as well. Although laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act have decreased the impact of discrimination, contact between those with mental illness and those without may be one of the most effective ways to diminish stigma. This book includes practical strategies for dealing with public stigma and self-stigma including deciding when and how to disclose one's psychiatric history to others."--Jacket.

The impact of mental illness stigma /Patrick W. Corrigan and Petra Kleinlein -- Methods for studying stigma and mental illness / Kenneth A. Rasinki, Peter Viechnicki and Colm O'Muircheartaigh -- First-person accounts of stigma / Beth Angell, Andrea Cooke, and Kelly Kovac -- Social psychological models of mental illness stigma / Victor Ottati, Galen Bodenhausen, and Leonard Newman -- Sociological models of mental illness stigma : progress and prospects / Fred E. Markowitz -- A social-cognitive model of personal responses to stigma / Amy C. Watson and L. Phillip River -- Mental illness and dangerousness : fact or misperception, and implications for stigma / Patrick W. Corrigan and Amy E. Cooper -- Senseless crimes : sin or sickness? : implications for mental illness stigma / Patrick W. Corrigan and Amy C. Watson -- Stigma and the police / Amy C. Watson, Victor Ottati, Art Lurigio, and Mark Heyrman -- Stigma and substance use disorders / Kenneth A. Rasinski, Pamela Woll, and Andrea Cooke -- Strategies for assessing and diminishing self-stigma / Patrick W. Corrigan and Joseph D. Calabrese -- Dealing with stigma through personal disclosure / Patrick W. Corrigan -- Challenging public stigma : a targeted approach / Amy C. Watson and Patrick W. Corrigan -- Changing stigma through the media / Margaret Sullivan, Thomas Hamilton, and Herbert Allen -- Mental illness stigma as social injustice : yet another dream to be achieved / Patrick W. Corrigan.