Harry Stack Sullivan (1892 -1949) famously said:
We are all much more simply human than otherwise, be we happy and successful, contented and detached, miserable and mentally disordered, or whatever.
via Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry Page 7
But few fully believe it: the stigma of mental illness remains strong more than 70 years later.
The following was written by consumers at the Rockland Psychiatric Center with guidance from filmmakers Alicia Salzer, MD, and Nikole Cattell. Mary Barber, MD is the Clinical Director at Rockland Psychiatric Center and she wrote that the project specifically was "made to raise awareness and reduce stigma around people with mental illness."
1 in 6 of us "need your understanding," "need your love." "It will make a better world." And maybe, instead of just reaching back when someone with mental illness reaches out, maybe the lucky 5 of 6 can sometimes start reaching first? Who knows, maybe ...
Todd Essig, Ph.D., is a training and supervising psychoanalyst at the William Alanson White Institute with a clinical practice treating individuals and couples.
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How to handle difficult people.
