What are the disadvantages to classification?

Courtesy with labeling mental illness

Do not define some one by their mental illness (ie "a manic depressive"), define them as "a person with manic depression" or "a person with schizophrenia"

Problem with labelling

a person's self-concept may be directly affected by being giving a diagnosis of schizophrenia, depression, or some other form of mental illness. Once a group of symptoms is given a name and identified by means of a diagnosis, this diagnostic label can be hard to shake even if the person later makes a full recovery.

when you simplify through classification, you inevitably lose:

an array of personal details about the actual person who has the disorder

Stereotypes

automatic beliefs concerning other people that are based on minimal (often trivial) information

classification provides information in a shorthand form, and shorthand form leads to:

loss of information

(T/F) level of knowledge about mental illness is often very poor

true

Although things are improving, there can still be a stigma (disgrace) associated with having a psychiatric diagnosis (T/F)

true

In a recent study ___% of patients with schizophrenia reported that stigma was a routine part of their lives

96

People are far more comfortable disclosing that they have a physical diagnosis (ie diabetes) as opposed admitting that they have a mental disorder. Why might that be?

In part due to fear (real or imagined) that speaking candidly about having a psychological disorder will result in unwanted social or occupational consequences or frank discrimination

Diagnostic labels do not classify people. Rather, they classify:

the disorders that people have