Selfhood and social distance: Toward a cultural understanding of psychiatric stigma in Egypt

Psychiatric stigma is a concept that is often used uncritically by policy-makers to explain the underutilization of professional psychiatric services in non-Western societies. Stigma, however, is a multi-determined process manifestations and effects of which cannot be viewed separately from the larger social and cultural context. The present paper presents the results of a qualitative study of psychiatric stigma in Egypt from the perspective of lay respondents. A vignette method was used to elicit judgments of social distance and qualitative responses to stories depicting psychosis, depression, alcohol abuse and a ‘possession state’ from 208 respondents recruited through their places of work. The results indicated that while stigma does exist in Egypt, the form that it takes must be understood with reference to Egyptian notions of selfhood that locate behavioral disturbances in the intersubjective rather than intrapsychic realm. On the one hand, individual blame is diffused as responsibility for the illness and its cure is placed in the social, not personal (or biological) realm. On the other, behavioral disorders that threaten the social fabric of society are particularly stigmatized and often met with social rejection.