Lorella Croswell
21 March 2013

Discrimination Continues To Harm the Mentally Ill; Throughout the World In recent years, the American led globalization of mental health has increased the interest of public health officials and psychiatrists throughout the world. The Cultural and social values, and attitudes of a particular society influence the beliefs that people have about mental illness. The knowledge about mental illness has spread globally, and it has begun to break down some of the barriers between cultures and countries. There has been a substantial increase in research on the stigma related to mental illness; however, the stigmatization of people with mental illness continues to cause discrimination. Stigma, myths and misconceptions lead to discrimination. In addition to the many aspects of discrimination that have been discussed it is important to know that the mentally ill in our society often lose their ability to make decisions. The stigmatizing beliefs concerning mental illness have given the public and lawmakers an opportunity to control the mentally ill. Due to discrimination, the mentally ill have blatantly suffered many human rights violations. Society can improve this situation by continuing their education effort and enforcing legislation in order to help the mentally ill feel more accepted by society. Globalization has increased the communication and interaction of people between countries and cultures; specifically, it has influenced the exchange of ideas concerning mental health. Ethan Watters points out in his article called “The Americanization of Mental Illness” that “For more than a generation now, we in the West have aggressively spread our modern knowledge of mental illness around the world. We have done this in the name of science, believing that our approaches reveal the biological basics of psychic suffering and dispel