Social representations of mental illness in India: Convergence and divergence among mental health professionals, psychology students and lay people

The present study aimed at exploring the understanding of mental illness among three groups of participants having varied experience in the field of mental health in terms of its nature, causes, management, course, outcome, and overall impact. The sample comprised 15 mental health professionals, 15 Psychology postgraduates, and 15 undergraduate students. Data was collected with the help of essay writing and semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and thematic network analysis. Ten thematic networks emerged, elucidating the nature, causes, course, outcome, and management of mental illnesses. The ideas of distress, disturbance, deficits, and deviance were attached to mental illness. Mental illnesses were also viewed as heterogeneous conditions with variable courses and outcomes. The causation of mental illnesses was attributed to multiple etiological factors. It was vehemently acknowledged that there are negative public representations of mental illnesses, but the participants themselves did not express any stigmatising representations in the current work. Elements of blaming, shaming, discrimination, neglect, and avoidance of issues about mental health were acknowledged. As opposed to the historically held views of the mentally ill that were associated with mystical beliefs, supernatural ideas, or primitive notions, in the current research, the participants expressed accepting attitudes towards the individual, which points towards the possibility of the social integration of the mentally ill.