A Survey of Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness

Selected respondents drawn from metropolitan Melbourne (N = 318), when asked to express their opinions and attitudes in relation to four hypothetical characters, recognized mental illness in the paranoid schizophrenic, were hesitant to acknowledge it in the simple schizophrenic and the alcoholic, and denied it almost absolutely in the anxiety neurotic. Failure to diagnose a condition as mental illness did not, however, necessarily preclude recognition that the person described was in need of psychiatric help. Certain respondent characteristics and, in particular, education were related to the opinions and attitudes expressed.