On Saturday, the Office of High School Programs and Active Minds Brandeis held a ’Deis Impact event called “Interdisciplinary Healing: Addressing the Stigma of Mental Illness on Brandeis Campus through Arts and Sciences.”

Diana Langberg ’17 and Risa Dunbar ’17 hosted the discussion-based forum which allowed attendees to actively share ideas with each other as well as with Prof. Joseph Cunningham (PSYC) and Joy von Steiger of the Psychological Counseling Center. 

Langberg and Dunbar began the event by posing five questions and asking the audience to write down their answers. 

The first question the pair asked concerned the difference between neurological brain disorders and mental illness. 

The second question was, “How should we think about diagnoses in relation to understanding a person’s entire story?”  

The last three questions that the pair asked provided the base for the direction of the afternoon’s discussion and prompted the audience to consider the stigma associated with mental illness. 

The last three questions were as follows: “what is stigma,” “have you ever experienced it as you just defined it” and “how is it perpetuated?”

After asking the third and final question, Dunbar told the audience, “If your responses to the previous question were a little bit complicated, that’s exactly what we’re here to talk about today.”

Langberg and Dunbar then transitioned the group into a guided discussion on the stigma associated with mental illness. 

“The definition of the word ‘stigma’ itself also plays a role in how it is perpetuated,” Langberg said. “So do we define stigma in relation to health or in some other way?”

Audience members also spoke about personal experiences surrounding the theme of  how different communities handle mental illness versus physical illness. 

One point brought up during the discussion was the difference in language commonly used to describe physical and mental illness. 

One attendee pointed out that patients who suffer from physical illnesses, such as cancer, are referred to as “having cancer” while patients who suffer from mental illnesses, such as autism, are labelled “autistic.” 

Another audience member brought up the use of the word “crazy” to describe those who suffer from mental illness, using it as an example of a word  that further perpetuates the stigma around mental illness. 

Audience members also discussed  the prevalent lack of understanding and issues with labeling people, both of which, they said, contribute to the stigmatization of mental illness. 

Von Steiger added that mental illness is often viewed as self-inflicted or even as a result of a lack of willpower, which can result in blaming the patient for their disease. 

Cunningham continued to add to the discussion and commented on the way in which the audience handled such a serious and conflictual topic. 

“I’m truly impressed by the extraordinarily thoughtful and sensitive readings of mental illness stigma that have been discussed here today,” he said. “The fear of the unknown is often a driving force in human interactions such as the one between the mental illness stigma and the general population.”

The group also discussed ideas of classification and medical diagnoses. 

Cunningham also stated, “I think that the value of science and diagnosis is clear.”

Audience members contested that thought, arguing that while diagnosis can be a useful tool, it can also promote a point of view that ignores a person’s individuality and emphasizes their diagnosis instead.

Cunningham added that science is never perfect, that there are limits to diagnosis and that misdiagnoses happen all the time.

Dunbar said that the ups and downs of diagnosis, as both Cunningham and the audience pointed out, promoted the pair’s initial  idea of the combination of the individual’s story as well as their diagnosis. 

Throughout the discussion, Dunbar and Langberg stressed that both scientific diagnosis and the individual qualities of the person have value that must be looked at together to create a complete picture of the person and the problem of stigma and mental illness. 

Langberg and Dunbar ended the event by reinforcing their concept of interdisciplinary discussions, inviting audience members to use the art supplies that they provided to “create art that represented the marriage between art and science that needed to happen in order to bridge the gap that further perpetuates mental illness stigma.”