Joseph Rochford, PhD, Director of Academic Affairs of the Research Centre, at the Douglas Institute, talks about the most recurrent preconceived idea about mental illness in this 2009 Mini-Psych school lecture :

• Mental illness is a single, rare disorder
• The mentally ill are insane
• If you are diagnosed with a mental illness, kiss your chances of a brilliant career goodbye
• The mentally ill are more violent
• Mental illnesses are not true medical illnesses like heart disease and diabetes
• If mental illnesses are biological, then psychotherapy is useless
• If you have a gene that have been associated with a mental illness, you are condemned to experience it
• The mentally ill are weak or lazy
• People with a mental illness never get better

Watch part 1 of Joseph Rochford's lecture.

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