Abstract
In 1992, the Canadian Psychiatric Association launched Canada’s first national campaign against mental illness, Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). I stress that pharmaceutical sponsorship of the first five years of MIAW (1992-1997) was integral to shaping the trajectory of the campaign and marks a shift in the way stigma is conceived and resisted in Canada: what was an interpersonal process based on social norms becomes refigured as “self-stigma,” or an individualized process in which lack of information, education, and self-assessment contribute to an inability to consider oneself as at-risk for a disease, condition, or disorder.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Auslander, Leora. 2005. “Beyond Words.” The American Historical Review 110(4): 1015–1045. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.110.4.1015.
Becker, Howard. 1963. Outsiders. New York: Free Press, Macmillan Publishing Co.
Blundell, Valda. 1994. “The Tourist and the Native.” In A Different Drummer: Readings in Anthropology with a Canadian Perspective, edited by B. A. Cox, J. Chevalier, and V. Blundell, 49-60. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.
Burstyn, Varda. 1999. The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport.” Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Canadian Newswire. 2007. “Dr. Wilbert Keon to receive the CMA’s Highest Honour.” August 15. Accessed 27 June 2013. https://www.newswire.ca/en/story/42803/dr-wilbert-keon-to-receive-the-cma-s-highest-honour.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. 1992a. “Canadian Psychiatric Association Bulletin.” Bulletin 24 (5): 2.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. 1992b. “Mental Illness Awareness Week – Income and Expenses.” Mental Illness Awareness Week Report. Canadian Psychiatric Association Archive, Ottawa, Canada.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. 1992c. Public Service Announcement. VHS. Canadian Psychiatric Association Archives, Ottawa, Canada.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. 1992d. “Membership: MIAW Steering Committee.” Mental Illness Awareness Week Report. Canadian Psychiatric Association Archive, Ottawa, Canada.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. 2003. Executive Committee Teleconference Meeting. Box 1, Unnamed Brown Folder. Canadian Psychiatric Association Archives, Ottawa, Canada: 5.
Canadian Psychiatric Association. n.d. “Anxiety, Depression, and Manic Depression.” Canadian Psychiatric Association Archives, Ottawa, Canada.
Chan, Jenny., Winnie Mak, and Lawrence Law. 2009. “Combining Education and Video-based Contact to Reduce Stigma of Mental Illness: ‘The Same or Not the Same’ Anti-stigma Program for Secondary Schools in Hong Kong.” Social Science & Medicine 68 (8): 1521-1526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.02.016
Clarke, Adele. 1991. “Social Worlds/Arenas Theory as Organizational Theory.” In Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, edited by Anselm Strauss and David R. Maines, 119-158. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
-----. 2005. Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.
“Clarke Study of Flesinoxan.” 1991. Bulletin 23 (3): 19.
Crocker, Jennifer and Brenda Major. 1989. “Sociological Stigma and Self-Esteem: The Self-Protective Properties of Stigma.” Psychological Review 96 (4): 608-630.
Cummings, Janet, Stephen Lucas and Benjamin Druss. 2013. “Addressing Public Stigma and Disparities among Persons with Mental Illness: The Role of Federal Policy.” American Journal of Public Health 103 (5): e1-e5. https://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/1349240853?accountid=14656
Daston, Lorraine and Peter Galison. 2007. Objectivity. New York: Zone Books.
Dumit, Joseph. 2004. Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-----. 2012. Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health. Durham: Duke University Press.
Economou, M., E. Louki, L.E. Peppou, E. Gramandani, L. Yotis, and C.N. Stefanis. 2012. “Fighting Psychiatric Stigma in the Classroom: The Impact of an Educational Intervention on Secondary School Students’ Attitudes to Schizophrenia.” International Journal of Social Psychiatry 58 (5): 544-581. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764011413678.
Gieryn, Thomas F. 2006. “City as Truth-Spot: Laboratories and Field-Sites in Urban Studies.” Social Studies of Science 36 (1): 5-38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25474429.
Goffman, Erving. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York: Anchor Books.
-----. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Hannem, Stacey. 2012. “Theorizing Stigma and the Politics of Resistance: Symbolic and Structural Stigma in Everyday Life.” In Stigma Revisited: Implications of the Mark, edited by Stacey Hannem and Chris Bruckert, 10-28. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.
Harper, Stephen. 2005. “Media, Madness and Misrepresentation: Critical Reflections on Anti-Stigma Discourse.” European Journal of Communication 20 (4): 460-483. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323105058252
Herek, Gregory M. 2007. “Confronting Sexual Stigma and Prejudice: Theory and Practice.” Journal of Social Issues 63 (4): 905-925. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.0054.x.
Jackson, Michael. 1991. “Black or White.” Dangerous. Epic Records. J. Landis, dir. MTV. 14 November.
“Jordan Heads Mental Health Group.” 1972. Star-News. Wilmington, N.C; November 19: 9. Accessed 17 June 2013. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fbgsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2wkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5692,6560255&dq=only-human+mental+health&hl=en.
Kleinman, Arthur, and Rachel Hall Clifford. 2009. “Stigma: A Social, Cultural and Moral Process.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 63 (6): 418-419. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2008.084277.
Livingstone, David. 2003. Putting Science In Its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Luckstead, Alicia and Amy L. Drapalski. 2015. “Self-Stigma regarding Mental Illness: Definition, Impact, and Relationship to Societal Stigma.” Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 38 (2): 99-102. https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000152.
MacRae, Donald K. 1991. “Letter to the Editor: A Fond Farewell.” Bulletin 23 (3): 5.
Marshall, Barbara L. 2009. “Sexual Medicine, Sexual Bodies and the ‘Pharmaceutical Imagination.’” Science as Culture 18 (2): 133-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505430902885466.
Martin, Emily. 2007. Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mental Health Commission of Canada. 2012. “The Facts.” Mental Health Strategy. Accessed 28 June 2013. https://strategy.mentalhealthcommission.ca/the-facts/.
Mental Health Minute. 2012. “Hockey and Depression.” Youtube.ca. Accessed 31 May 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-6jQbbckaU.
Murphy, Michelle. 2006. Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty. Durham: Duke University Press.
“Only Human is New Color Film on Mental Health.” 1972. The Hinton News. Hinton, West Virginia, July 6: p 2. Accessed 17 June 2013. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=968&dat=19720706&id=fAQlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GRIGAAAAIBAJ&pg=2292,1858740&hl=en.
“‘Only Human’ Slated on WWNY Television.” 1972. Courier and Freeman. May 17. Accessed 4 August 2017. https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031769/1972-05-17/ed-1/seq-22/.
Ontario Psychiatric Association. 1990. “A Contribution to the Dialogue on Mental Health for Canadians: Striking a Balance.” Bulletin 22 (4): 4.
Pankratz, W. 1992. “Letter to Colleague.” Mental Illness Awareness Week Report. 11 May. Canadian Psychiatric Association Archive, Ottawa: Canada.
Prown, J. D. 1982. “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method.” Winterthur Portfolio 17 (1): 1-19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1180761.
“Public Announcement on Fluoxetine.” 1991. Bulletin 23 (6): 11.
Rae-Grant, Dr. Quentin. 1990. “Maldistribution of Psychiatric Manpower.” Bulletin 22 (4): 12.
Ritsher, Jennifer Boyd, Poorni G. Otilingam, and Monica Grajales. 2003. “Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness: Psychometric Properties of a New Measure.” Psychiatry Research 121 (1): 31-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2003.08.008.
Ritsher, Jennifer Boyd, and Jo C. Phelan. 2004. “Internalized Stigma Predicts Erosion of Morale among Psychiatric Outpatients.” Psychiatry Research 129 (3): 257-265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2003.08.008.
Roberts, Charlie. 1990. “The History of the CPA.” Bulletin 22 (4): 6-10.
Rose, Nikolas. 2007. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-----. 2010. “‘Screen and Intervene’: Governing Risky Brains.” History of the Human Sciences 23 (1): 79-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695109352415.
Sadowsky, Jonathan. 2006. “Beyond the Metaphor of the Pendulum: Electroconvulsive Therapy, Psychoanalysis, and the Styles of American Psychiatry.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 61 (1): 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrj001.
Scrambler, Graham and Anthony Hopkins. 1986. “Being Epileptic: Coming to Terms with Stigma.” Sociology of Health and Illness 8 (1): 26-43. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11346455.
Sismondo, Sergio. 2007. “Ghost Management: How Much of the Medical Literature Is Shaped Behind the Scenes by the Pharmaceutical Industry?” PLoS Medicine, 4 (9): e286. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040286.
Smith, Rachel. 2007. “Language of the Lost: An Explication of Stigma Communication.” Communication Theory 17 (4): 462-485. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2007.00307.x.
Swan, Carol. 1991. “Survey Results show Association’s Strengths and Weaknesses.” Bulletin 23 (6): 7-9.
“The Insurance Industry and Mental Health Care.” 1991. Bulletin 22 (3): 11.
Wahl, Otto. 1995. Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Endnotes
1 As part of my research, I visited the Canadian Psychiatric Association in Ottawa, Canada. This is an archival source from the Canadian Psychiatric Association: Executive Committee Teleconference Meeting in Box 1, Unnamed Brown Folder, 2003, p. 5.
2 This is another archival source from the Canadian Psychiatric Association: Canadian Psychiatric Association. “Mental Illness Awareness Week – Income and Expenses” Mental Illness Awareness Week Report. Ottawa, Canada: 1992.
3 Unfortunately, MHA has not digitized their anti-stigma media and does not possess a copy of this film, nor do they know where to find one. From, Taylor Rhodes,. “RE: [mhainfo] "Only Human" 1971 Film” Unpublished Personal Correspondence with author. May 21, 2013.
4 Jonathan Sadowsky (2006) has highlighted the dangers of representing the tensions between somatic and psychological approaches as a pendulum, “swinging back and forth between two poles” (5). While not an incorrect metaphor, it is incomplete and grossly simplifies the complex interactions and translations between the two. However, due to space constraints, I employ this incomplete metaphor while recognizing its shortcomings.
5 It is important to note that the Mental Health Commission of Canada has recently (2009) undertaken an anti-stigma campaign, “Opening Minds,” whose target audiences include health care providers, workplaces, and homes. This campaign relies on a social understanding of stigma, shifting blame away from the individual to systemic factors, this shows the multiple and various ways in which stigma has and continues to be mobilized as a rhetorical strategy. https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/initiatives-and-projects/opening-minds.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gaudet, L. “Even Heroes Get Depressed”: Sponsorship and Self-Stigma in Canada’s Mental Illness Awareness Week . J Med Humanit 40, 155–170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-017-9483-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-017-9483-z