Ingroup and Outgroup Strategies for Destigmatization of People with Mental Disorders

This work is aimed to illuminate strategies of destigmatization of people with mental disorders. The strategies will be examined from two sides: «ingroup» ones, which are used by those who are diagnosed with mental disorders, and «outgroup» ones which are used by media resources. In case to observe ingroup strategies, I will conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews with people diagnosed with mental disorders of certain types; and in case of outgroup ones there will be applied qualitative analysis of online media resources. In order to answer the key research question – what strategies for destigmatization of people with mental disorders are used by people with mental illnesses and by media resources – I formulated five research tasks: 1. To recognize views of people with mental disorders about others’ attitude to them (“others” will be divided into different types by their closeness to the object); 2. To define span of reactions of examined object when meeting others’ stigmatizing behavior directed to them; 3. To describe how stigmatized group envisions consequences of stigmatization; 4. To analyze strategies of coping with tendency to self-stigmatization; 5. To analyze strategies of representation of people with mental disorder used in media. On the basis of considered theories and studies related to the subject, I made a corresponding assumprion for each of the research tasks: 1. People with mental disorders suggest that there is common bias of them as dangerous and unpredictable (mad people) or as weak people who are not able to manage their problems; 2. The main way to confront stigma used by people with mental disorders is raising others’ awareness about the real peculiarities of the psychic condition of people with mental diseases and their lives; 3. The most widespread and harsh consequences of stigmatization are low self-esteem, lack of confidence and difficulties in socialization; 4. Two major ways of coping with self-stigma are either embedding in their stigmatized group or, on the contrary, alienation from it and denial of psychiatric condition; 5. Mainly, in case to illuminate the problem of stigmatization media resources present it from the point of view of stigmatized group, in this way raising the awareness about facts of life with mental illness and symptoms of different diseases. The study paper will consist of introduction to research problem, literature review, description of methodology and sample, interpretation of the results and the conclusion.