Article on our free will and why some people may be so dismissive of mental illnesses

The Illusion of Free Will and Mental Illness Stigma

The idea of free will, the illusion that our minds are free to wander, independent of the brain, is problematic for psychiatry. Libertarian free will is the notion that we are free to choose our thoughts and actions at any given moment; that we could have acted differently than we did in the past, because we as the conscious authors chose otherwise.

psychologytoday.com

Personally I found the change in the womans mood after finding out that she was dieing to be particularly interesting, that one could be so scared of having a mental illness.