Interview with Fausta Palaimaitė, Doctor of Theology and Master of Social Work.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a stable pattern of sexual attraction towards children. Despite the subjective distress often experienced by these individuals, and the potential for sexual abuse associated with the condition, people with pedophilia are often unable to access appropriate psychiatric treatment. The objective of this communication is to describe the approach taken in Norway over the last ten years, which addresses some of these challenges.

Interview with podcaster and public lecturer Yrja Oftedahl.

As a chief military psychiatrist, involved in the psychiatric strategic oversight of armed forces personnel, covering selection (before war), performance (during war) and rehabilitation (after war); I often reflect upon the essential contribution of my civilian colleagues. Yes, there is always a final end of war and a fractured society may require years to heal and recover both the visible and invisible wounds afflicting soldiers, their families and society at large.

Ever since Goffman published his work on stigma in 1963, sociologists and other social scientists have been interested in understanding stigma. Goffman defined stigma as “an attribute that is deeply discrediting” and argues that the stigmatized person is reduced “from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one” (Goffman 1963:3). Around the same time, sociologists and psychiatrists influenced by social constructionist perspectives challenged the biomedical conceptua

Stigma and discrimination are still prominent features of the life situation of people with mental illness, adding to the burden of living with a mental illness. Negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination are still prevalent. In fact, there is evidence that public attitudes have not changed substantially during the last two decades or even turned worse in the case of people with schizophrenia. Stigma and discrimination affect people with a mental illness in many ways

More people are diagnosed with ever more diagnoses. While often for the best, the diagnostic inflation has some severe drawbacks: diagnoses can come to harm people more than helping them, and they can be stigmatizing. When the burden of a diagnosis is larger than its benefits dediagnosing, that is the removal of diagnoses that do not contribute to reducing the personʼs suffering, should be considered. Dediagnosing comes together with other measures against overuse, such as d

Interview with Mr. Hlynur Jónasson, supported employment and creative arts director at Landspítali.

Greenlanders drink less than Danes, but the prejudices portraying Greenlanders as suffering widespread alcohol problems. The recent debate in the Danish media has once again brought the obvious discrimination against and prejudices about Greenlanders to the surface. Derogatory expressions such as "Greenlander drunk stiff," "Greenlandic rolls," "The Greenlandic embassy," and "Greenlandic pubs" appear in the Danish language and simultaneously reveal persistent prejudices about

Few psychiatrists have contributed as much to our understanding of mental health stigma as Sir Graham Thornicroft. Over several decades, he has combined clinical experience, academic research, and international advocacy to explore how stigma affects people living with mental health conditions and to identify effective ways of reducing discrimination. As author of Shunned and co-chair of the landmark Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health, Thorn

Public attitudes towards mental illness have changed significantly in recent decades, yet stigma remains a major barrier to inclusion, recovery, and equal opportunities for many people living with mental health conditions. In Iceland, the user-led organisation Geðhjálp (The Icelandic Mental Health Alliance) has taken an active role in measuring and challenging stigma through recurring national surveys, public discussions, and educational initiatives.

Parents of adolescents hospitalized in a psychiatric ward inevitably face the stigma associated with mental disorders. First, when experiencing external stigma from others, parents begin to feel blamed and socially shamed for their child’s mental disorder, often being labeled as incompetent parents. The prevailing view is that parents whose children have been diagnosed with mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and especially social phobi

Interview with sexual medicine specialist and psychiatrist Dr. Giedrė Jonušienė.

Stigma in psychiatric settings stems from more than just individual prejudice; it is actively maintained through institutional, linguistic, and emotional defence mechanisms. The glass-enclosed nursing station serves as the most visible symbol of these boundaries. Behind it, documentation rituals, professional language, and diagnostic categories act as institutional defences. While they help clinical staff survive the heavy emotional labour, they simultaneously create the dist

Stigmatization of psychiatric patients, particularly those with co-occurring substance use disorders, is a common reason for exclusion from both society and treatment within the Danish healthcare system. Healthcare professionals are generally aware of this problem and are often able to identify the consequences of societal stigmatization, such as prejudice, exclusion from treatment, judgmental questioning, and unwarranted assumptions. However, institutional logics, profession

During my upbringing in Gothenburg in the 1990s, the diagnosis Deficits in Attention, Motor control and Perception (DAMP) had just been introduced. DAMP can briefly be described as a narrower phenotype of ADHD, including motor symptoms or coordination difficulties roughly corresponding to Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Children ran around shouting "DAMP kid" at each other, and the term became a dominant insult in schoolyards, alongside derogatory terms related to