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Introduction
Despite medical advancements in mental health, mental illness continues to be stubbornly coupled with a concoction of misconceptions and negative attitudes (Pescosolido et al., 2013), and people with mental illness continue to remain subject to stigma that restricts their full inclusion in community life (Ditchman et al., 2013) and deprives them of their right for a dignified and productive life (WHO, 2003).
In the Western world, the source of mental illness stigma has been traced back to the New Testament in which the diagnosis of demonic possession was commonly attributed to people who exhibited signs of mental illness (a dissociative identity disorder, an epileptic seizure, or even Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome) (Kemp, 1985). Several reports, published during the nineteenth century, depicted the deplorable state of the European and UK “asylums” catering for “lunatics” (Haslam, 1817; Hill, 1838; Manning, 1868). In the Arab world, mental illness has been viewed as a curse from the “evil eye” or a “Jinn” possession for Muslim believers (Ahmad et al., 2016), a “devil-possession” for Christian believers (Waldmeier, 1897), a state of holy awakening translating a message from God (Mehraby, 2009; Scull et al., 2014), or a case of contamination, as in Morocco, where it is believed that mental illness can be “contracted” by accidentally stepping on sorcery or drinking it (Stein, 2000; Mehraby, 2009).
Mental illness is a two-edged sword on the afflicted person, where one has to struggle with the symptoms and simultaneously cope with the stigma surrounding it (Corrigan and Watson, 2002; Corrigan et al., 2004; Rüsch et al., 2005). The internalization of these public stereotypes (self-stigma) by people with mental illness leads them to refuse treatment or, if in treatment, discontinue it (Corrigan et al., 2014; Ciftci et al., 2013), thus reducing opportunities for reinsertion into the community (Gulliver et al., 2010).
Mental health legislations protect the civil rights of people with mental illness “against any form of inhuman treatment and discrimination” by ensuring the legal and regulatory framework for mental health services and mental health care providers (WHO, 2003, p. viii). Yet, the mere existence of a mental health legislation in any country does not necessarily guarantee that the human rights of people with mental...