To Tag or Untag

Labeling a patient with his 'diagnosed' disorder is apt for physiological illness so that a fitting solution or medication on how to cure him will be given by the doctors (and by those attending his well-being). But when it comes to a person who is psychologically ill, it is not appropriate to tag him with the disorder for the reason that it hinders the treatment process.

In the article published by D.L. Rosenhan On Being Sane in Insane Places, pseudopatients who have been labelled as schizophrenic in a psychiatric assessment can do nothing to overcome the tag. The tag profoundly colors people’s (i.e doctors, nurses, and staff in the psychiatric hospital) perceptions of him. All of his explicit behaviour is explained in terms of his ‘tag’. Even if certain behaviour is stimulated by an external stimulus, it is still usually misattributed to the pseudopatient’s "disorder".

This has been pointed out by Gestalt psychology, demonstrated by Asch in his Warm versus Cold study. Central personality traits (such as “warm” versus “cold”) are very powerful that they strikingly color the meaning of other information in forming an impression of a given personality. For instance, one would perceive more positively Person A who is described as warm, intelligent, and handsome compared to Person B who is described as cold, intelligent, and handsome. Furthermore, when a person is diagnosed as "abnormal", "schizophrenic", or "manic-depressive" (probably all of which are potent central traits), then perhaps all of his actions and characteristics, may be colored by the label.

A psychiatric label has a life of its own. Once the impression has been formed that the patient is schizophrenic, the expectation is that he will continue to be schizophrenic. Thus, it hampers treatment. The diagnosis shape perceptions of the circumstances instead of the circumstances shaping the diagnosis.

In addition, the diagnosis somehow acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of the patient. Eventually, the patient himself accepts the diagnosis, with all of its superfluous meanings and expectations, and behaves accordingly, which does not aid or facilitate treatment process at all.