Associations: Words Used to describe persons with mental illness(es)

Technique to operationalise "Perceptions"

* Association 

* Attribution (meaning)

* Reactions

What people in masyarkat say about PMI  (19/9)

- gila - anyone who enter must be crazy 

- Sinting - gila 

- kenthir - gila 

- gemblung - people who are very stupid

- stress - when one has too much, it affects one's ability to think straight

Results of survey

Kasihan (pity)! My research surfaced kasihan (pity) as the most common word associated with persons with mental illness(es) where more than 40 respondents out of 200 (20%) cited this as the first word that comes to mind when thinking of such persons.

Besides kasihan (pity) other words commonly associated (Chart 1) are gila (crazy) — 12.5% (25 respondents), sakit (sick) — 7.5% (15 respondents), edan (crazy), aneh (weird), kucel (crumpled), berbeda (different), kosong (empty), hilang (lost) and Islamic proclamations: astagfirullah (forgiveness from Allah), innalillahiwainailaihirojiun (surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return).