Mental Illness Stigma

* I agree with your editorial “Foot in Mouth Disease (Cont.)” (July 10) and it is probably true that “sorry” somehow doesn’t quite take back the insidious effects of uttering racist poems and ethnic slurs. May I point out that The Times apparently saw no “insidious effects” when you printed this headline “Are Voters Schizophrenic or Sane?” (Capitol Journal, March 29). A short time later a headline asked were voters “schizo”? Am I the only reader to object to such mindless discrimination toward the only physical disorder I ever see misused so frequently in print?

May I suggest that in all fairness to people who, through no action or fault of their own, must deal with a serious mental disease that the diagnostic term schizophrenia be restricted to its intended medical use. To do otherwise will always contribute to the stigma and trivialization of a most misunderstood physical disease. We may agree that discrimination in all its forms hurts everyone every time.

BARBARA SANCHEZ

San Gabriel