EFFECTS OF THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS ON 2 GERMAN POLITICIANS UPON PUBLIC-ATTITUDES TO THE MENTALLY-ILL .1. DEVELOPMENTS IN 1990

In 1990 two assassination attempts against prominent German politician s were carried out by mentally ill persons. In the same year we conduc ted three representative surveys of the adult population of the FRG (o ld Lander and West Berlin) which allowed us to investigate the impact of both events on the attitude of the public towards the mentally ill. Already shortly after the first violent attack there was a marked inc rease of social distance, i. e. those questioned were less willing to have contact with a schizophrenic man. After the second assassination attempt the tendency to reject such a person increased again significa ntly. This applied to all forms of relationships studied. The increase of social distance is explained by the re-activitation of the stereot ype of the dangerous and unpredictable ''insane'' person.