Mental illness denial ormental disorder denial is a form ofdenialism in which a person denies the existence ofmental disorders.[1] Both serious analysts[2][3] andpseudoscientific movements[1] question the existence of certain disorders.
A minority of professional researchers see disorders such asdepression from asociocultural perspective and argue that solutions should be sought through fixing a dysfunction in thesociety, not in the person's brain.[3]
Inpsychiatry,insight is the ability of an individual to understand their mental health,[4] andanosognosia is the lack of awareness of a mental health condition.[5]
Certain psychological analysts argue this denialism is acoping mechanism usually fueled bynarcissistic injury.[6] According toElyn Saks, probing patient's denial may lead to better ways to help them overcome their denial and provide insight into other issues.[6] Major reasons for denial are narcissistic injury and denialism.[6] In denialism, a person tries to deny psychologically uncomfortable truth and tries torationalize it.[6] This urge for denialism is fueled further by narcissistic injury.[6]Narcissism gets injured when a person feels vulnerable (or weak or overwhelmed) for some reason like mental illness.[6]
^abcdefSaks, Elyn R. "Some thoughts on denial of mental illness." American Journal of Psychiatry 166.9 (2009): 972-973. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
^Paris, Joel (2020).Overdiagnosis in psychiatry how modern psychiatry lost its way while creating a diagnosis for almost all of life's misfortunes (Second ed.). New York, NY.ISBN978-0-19-750430-7.OCLC1147940363.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
