When I interviewed for psychiatry residency, I met a well known expert in the problem of stigma with mental illnesses. She described her work, related to psychiatry and the humanities, and, in expressing interest, I made the mistake of mentioning the Black psychiatrist/revolutionary Frantz Fanon; I saw her frown and I knew the interview had ended dismally. Fanon, she said, was no scientist.

Years later, I treated a patient, who, fortuitously, began to work as an assistant to the aforementioned academic expert in stigma. My patient, a man who had bipolar disorder, had benefited from having worked for a man who sounded like a truly wonderful human being; my patient's previous boss had been very supportive whenever my patient had to miss work due to depression, as was frequent, or mania, as not infrequent. My patient's ex-boss unfortunately moved away, and, when my patient obtained new employ, he found himself working for Professor Anti-Stigma. Suprisingly, working for this professor was not so easy; many demands were made, unexplained days off were questioned harshly, and poor performance was not well tolerated. My patient had felt quite able to let his old boss know everything about his mental illness. But with his new boss, the anti-stigma specialist, my patient experienced stigma, and remained silent.