[Social distance of the population toward psychiatric patients]

The focus of the present study centers on the attitude of the German public's attitude towards mentally ill individuals during the early 1990s, using the extent of social distance as its indicator. The study is based on a number of representative surveys carried out between 1990 and 1993. We found that alcohol dependents met with the highest level of rejection, even more so than those suffering from schizophrenia. Furthermore, personal experience with mental illness is associated with a lower level of desired social distance, which may be attributed to an increase of positive emotional reactions and reduced feelings of anxiety. There is a clear association between the social distance maintained by certain persons towards the mentally ill and the desired social distance displayed by the same persons to other "aliens", strangers or outsiders.