Abstract

Moving from the social and political arena to the choices we face in our own private lives, Claudia Mills asks how information about someones mental illness should be shared with others. Whileopen communication about mental illness works toward the important goal of reducing its unfair stigma, it can cause harm or embarrassment, violate privacy, and challenge an individuals ownpreferred self-representation. She offers tentative guidelines for how to proceed on this sensitive and morally charged issue.