To the Editors:
There is no "stigma" to mental illnesses (The Dartmouth, "Arthur '06 struggles with stigma of mental illness," May 18). Your employment of the term is unconscionable. What we do experience is blatant discrimination based wholly upon ignorance, as is most discrimination. One of the basest of those discriminations is that we somehow carry a "stigma."
The lesson has been taught so well that many people who experience the discrimination actually turn it against themselves, convinced they are at fault. It worked well in this country against women whom men had raped, and it worked against people of African descent. Women so believed their lack of worth that they remained silent abetting men in further acts of rape. African Americans believed it so thoroughly that they actually perceived of themselves in the terms white America assigned them. And now another group has come to the fore that is both victimized and victimizes itself: a number of people who have experienced a mental health need and who have internalized the discrimination against them as self-blame.
How terrible that this lesson is being taught at a university, but then, so was segregation and the demeaning of women before universities learned. And no, universities have not entirely learned.
I am asking that you interdict this prejudicial lesson: there is no sign on my person that separates me from anyone. None. The vast majority of people who seek mental health help attend to our daily living as does everyone else: We teach at Dartmouth, we are administrators at Dartmouth. We are legislators and leaders, Nobel prize winners; in fact, name a prize, we have won it. We have led countries. The basis of all stereotypes is to promote a negative view. Stop. You are violating American law, the Americans with Disabilities Act, by labeling us. Stop.
