[Comments on language of psychiatrists and stigmatization of the mentally ill]

Language is determinative for psychiatric action, both for the understanding of the mentally ill and for treatment. More generally spoken, language also may be significant for the stigmatization of the mentally ill and of psychiatric institutions. Not least, language is the expression of the current social and cultural atmosphere, the zeitgeist. This will be demonstrated by examples of 1) the patient-physician dialogue, 2) the stigmatizing effect of words, 3) the sociopsychological mechanisms of politically correct language and 4) the change of connotations over time in unchangingly expressed terms.