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YPSP01-11 - “Am I just paranoid?!”: a study about psychiatric contaminations on colloquial language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2020

S. Ferrari
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
M. Menozzi
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
C. Piemonte
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
G. Pontoni
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
L. Masoni
Affiliation:
Celtic & Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
M. Rigatelli
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

Abstract

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Objectives

Common language is a mirror of culture and society. Death and mental illness are the human deepest and most ancient taboos, which both patients and professionals have to face in the medical world. Psychiatry has strong and circular connections with culture and society. The aim of this work was to collect and analyze expressions in colloquial language originally derived from psychiatric technical terminology.

Methods

A hundred and ten fifth-year medical students (M/F% = 42/58; mean age = 23.5 ± 3.1) attending their semester in psychiatry were asked to list as many expressions as possible of their everyday colloquial use which they thought referred to psychiatry. The terms were collected and analyzed critically.

Results

A list of 150 espressions was drawn and then classified in the following categories: technical psychiatric terms; medical-neurological terms; psycoanalytic references; terms referring to abnormality and need for care; irrelevant terms. Though an overall good level of pertinence in the use of technical psychiatric terms was observed, these usually refer to common situations, both individual and happening to others. Often these locutions are used as jokes or offences.

Conclusion

Due to fears and prejudices evoked by psychiatric themes, an attempt on exorcising and taking distance leads to the use of psychiatric terms as potentially offensive and despising. This work suggests the need to work - especially in training settings - on filling the gap between common and medical languages and to analyze critically the contaminations as suggestive of very relevant cultural issues.

Type
YP Scholar poster
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2010
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