Well-Being in the Legal Profession

Stigma, and the discrimination that can be associated with it, is a social stressor that exists in the legal culture. The Study distinguished between three different types of stigma:

• Personal stigma refers to one’s personal attitudes and emotional response to people with mental health challenges.
• Perceived stigma refers to one’s beliefs about the attitude of others to people with mental health challenges.
• Internalized stigma refers to the personal and subjective experience of someone dealing with or someone who has dealt with mental health challenges.

The Study found that there was a significant discrepancy between personal stigma and perceived stigma in the legal profession. In other words, even though most national survey respondents do not hold negative or biased attitudes toward people with mental health challenges, they perceived that many others in the legal profession held these attitudes. Additionally, despite low levels of personal stigma, those who have or have had mental health challenges reported high levels of internalized stigma. The gap in our perceptions can have significant consequences for people who experience mental health challenges during their career, including the tendency not to talk about mental health challenges or seek help when needed, social withdrawal and feeling alienated.