Mental Illness and Equity: Matters Conceptual

Abstract

The advances in biological psychiatry, the progress made in community psychiatry and the growing involvement of society in mental health programs, have dramatically raised the question as to the definition of “mental illness”. Distinctions have been made between broad meanings of the term, including any deviation in inner experience or overt behaviour, which might lead a person to seek professional help and a narrower interpretation which assumes the existence of medical-clinical syndromes and of underlying biological disturbances. Recent classifications refer to psychiatric “disorders” rather than “illness”.¹