“Who Will Marry a Mad Doctor?”: A Qualitative Study of Associative Stigma Among Mental Health Professionals in India
Abstract
Mental health professionals (MHPs) can experience stigma through their professional association with mental illness and mental healthcare. Existing studies have often focused on particular professions, service populations, or specific aspects of associative stigma, making it difficult to identify recurring patterns across professions and beyond the workplace. This study explored associative stigma among MHPs in India across professional, family, and wider social contexts. Semi-structured interviews with 22 MHPs, including psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counsellors, psychiatric social workers, and psychiatric nurses, were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within a constructivist framework. Eight themes were developed, spanning misconceptions about MHP roles and abilities, mistrust of expertise and motives, concerns about how mental health work might affect them, devaluation of mental health work, exclusion involving social distancing and concealment, role expectations extending beyond work, ambivalent responses in which admiration or reliance coexisted with misunderstanding, avoidance, or devaluation, and differences in professional standing. Across the analysis, experiences that might otherwise appear separate were connected by recurring meanings attached to mental illness and mental healthcare. The study broadens understanding of the social and professional reach of stigma surrounding mental illness. Through professional association, these meanings can shape how MHPs, their expertise, and mental health work are understood and valued.
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BibTeX
@misc{moar2026will,
title = {{“Who Will Marry a Mad Doctor?”: A Qualitative Study of Associative Stigma Among Mental Health Professionals in India}},
author = {Deepti Dilip Moar and Rajat Kanti Mitra and Sunil Mittal},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/5edyb_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5edyb_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - “Who Will Marry a Mad Doctor?”: A Qualitative Study of Associative Stigma Among Mental Health Professionals in India
AU - Deepti Dilip Moar
AU - Rajat Kanti Mitra
AU - Sunil Mittal
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/26
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/5edyb_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5edyb_v1/
AB - Mental health professionals (MHPs) can experience stigma through their professional association with mental illness and mental healthcare. Existing studies have often focused on particular professions, service populations, or specific aspects of associative stigma, making it difficult to identify recurring patterns across professions and beyond the workplace. This study explored associative stigma among MHPs in India across professional, family, and wider social contexts. Semi-structured interviews with 22 MHPs, including psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counsellors, psychiatric social workers, and psychiatric nurses, were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within a constructivist framework. Eight themes were developed, spanning misconceptions about MHP roles and abilities, mistrust of expertise and motives, concerns about how mental health work might affect them, devaluation of mental health work, exclusion involving social distancing and concealment, role expectations extending beyond work, ambivalent responses in which admiration or reliance coexisted with misunderstanding, avoidance, or devaluation, and differences in professional standing. Across the analysis, experiences that might otherwise appear separate were connected by recurring meanings attached to mental illness and mental healthcare. The study broadens understanding of the social and professional reach of stigma surrounding mental illness. Through professional association, these meanings can shape how MHPs, their expertise, and mental health work are understood and valued.
ER -