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Given the facts that 1. Culture/society shapes our reality and 2. Everything we perceive about our realities is constructed by our minds/brains, isn't it natural to assume that culture is to blame for the stigma associated with mental health disorders? As Professor Grobstein pointed out, cultures and cultural values can be changed. Nothing exists in a vacuum. There is a constant interplay between society and the individuals that comprise it. Society is evolving just like everything else- it is only what we make of it. As stated in class, accepting individual differences would be the first step in correcting the skewed perception of "normalcy" which our society tends to assume. But that would only happen in a perfect world. I agree with Allie that society definitely serves a purpose, although I'm not sure that the majority of individuals in our society are well-represented by our value systems. I believe a relatively small group of people hold the majority of the power in our culture and for this reason certain topics are considered taboo.  
I greatly enjoyed the discussion in class about why our culture/society values productivity above all other qualities. It made me realize how capitalistic our society truly is. In these reports: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12813119 and http://depression.about.com/b/2010/01/25/depressed-workers-less-productive-even-with-antidepressant-treatment.htm productivity is the means in which a workers' worth is measured. The term 'lost productive time' (in the first report) refers specifically to time not spent furthering the company agenda. Ultimately, the company does not earn as much money as they could have and that is to be avoided when possible. Which means, companies can refuse to hire, fire, or deny requests for time off from work from people with a mental illness based on the information gleaned from the report by the media. So a common cultural assumption is that a person taking time off from work is a detriment to society. It could be argued that removing a person with depression from his/her job is more productive because the corporate machine can continue on with employees that are ready to "join society and make stuff". Clearly if the individual with depression lacked the drive to succeed, the company would be better off giving that individual some vacation time instead of forcing them to adhere to company policy. Our own culture engenders the negative attitude toward mental health illnesses because of its product-driven behavior.