Mental illness and Irish people: stereotypes, determinants and changing perspectives

The causes of psychological illness in Irish people have been identified with colonial rule and the catastrophic conditions deriving from famine in the nineteenth century. In particular, the scourge of unremitting emigration, resulting from famine, has formed a background against which speculative theories of inferiority, alienation and mental illness have been constructed. In particular, the long standing idea that Irish people exhibit higher rates of schizophrenia, both in Ireland and abroad, is discussed. Contemporary studies which suggest that these elevated rates do not correspond to international diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia are introduced. Rather, these enhanced rates may reflect a malaise which resembles schizophrenia but which is really a product of historical dispossession. The importance of these factors is underscored by the previous neglect of Irish people, considered as an ethnic minority, as well as the particular distaste which many Irish people display towards such a notion.