Last edited Sun Jun 1, 2014, 01:50 PM - Edit history (3)
which simply creates greater distortion, and prejudicial justifications for discrimination against the mentally ill.
"The public most fear violence that is random, senseless, and unpredictable and they associate this with mental illness. Indeed, they are more reassured to know that someone was stabbed to death in a robbery, than stabbed to death by a psychotic man (Marzuk P. Violence, crime, and mental illness. How strong a link? Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1996;53:481–486. [PubMed]).
In a series of surveys spanning several real-life events in Germany, Angermeyer and Matschinger (Violent attacks on public figures by persons suffering from psychiatric disorders. Their effect on the social distance towards the mentally ill. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1995;245:159–164. [PubMed]) showed that the public's desire to maintain social distance from the mentally ill increased markedly after each publicized attack, never returning to initial values.
Further, these incidents corresponded with increases in public perceptions of the mentally ill as unpredictable and dangerous."
Stuart, Violence and mental illness: an overview. World Psychiatry. Jun 2003; 2(2): 121–124.
PMCID: PMC1525086
It's a curiosity that speaks to the role of misperception and distorted cognition in the 'mentally well' that fear of violence by the mentally is considered so great while all out of proportion with society's general experience. While 25-30% of persons in developed nations manifest diagnosable symptoms of mental illness each year, scientific surveys taken to detect violence by the mentally ill find that less than 2% of the population reports such events in the previous year.
Yet, the perceptions are so strongly entrained that attempts at disabusing the mistaken of their prejudice are rejected as 'word policing', 'thought control' and 'social engineering'.
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