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Print Price: $179.99

Format:
Paperback
704 pp.
6.2" x 9.2"

ISBN-13:
9780195381719

Copyright Year:
2009

Imprint: OUP US

The Sociology of Mental Illness

A Comprehensive Reader

Jane D. McLeod and Eric R. Wright

The Sociology of Mental Illness is a comprehensive collection of readings designed to help students develop a nuanced and sophisticated appreciation of the most important, heated - and fascinating - controversies in the field.

Drawing primarily from sociological sources, the text features both classical and contemporary selections that cover the full range of sociological topics, perspectives, and debates, including the social construction of mental illness, the social origins of mental illness, and contemporary mental health treatment. This rich, varied assortment gives students a "roadmap" to the evolution and development of sociological research over time and insight into key controversies in the field.

Selections include such classical readings as Scheff's original statement of labeling theory, contemporary reports on the prevalence of mental illness in countries around the world, and recent analyses of the changing treatment system. The readings are organized progressively in order to help students recognize the dynamic character of mental health research and the important role that controversies play in advancements in the field; this organization also gives students the tools they need to formulate their own views and opinions on crucial matters.

A versatile, engaging text, The Sociology of Mental Illness is ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in the sociology of mental illness.

Reviews

"I wholeheartedly agree with the authors that a new book for courses in the sociology of mental health and illness is needed. The books on today's market are overly psychological, too brief, or too narrow to provide a full discourse of the sociological research and theory on this subject. I like McLeod and Wright's de-emphasis on disorder classification, reversing a major sociological failure of several competing books. I also like their emphasis on social construction approaches. This book can serve either as a stand-alone text or a companion book for courses in the sociology of mental health and illness. I would be highly likely to adopt this book as a primary text in an undergraduate course."

--Allen Furr, University of Louisville

Part I. Definitions of Mental Illness
1. What is Mental Illness? Psychiatric Perspectives
Peter Conrad and Joseph W. Schneider: Medical model of madness: The emergence of mental illness
Martha Livingston Bruce: Mental illness as psychiatric disorder
2. What is Mental Illness? Sociological Perspectives
Peter Conrad: The discovery of hyperkinesis
Anne E. Figert: The Three Faces of PMS: The Professional, Gendered, and Scientific Structuring of a Psychiatric Disorder
3. Culture and the definition of Mental Illness
Arthur Kleinman: What is a psychiatric diagnosis?
Kathryn Schultz: Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?
Part II. Prevalence and Patterns of Mental Illness
4. The Measurement of Mental Health and Mental Disorders
Galen E. Switzer, Mary Amanda Dew, and Evelyn J. Bromet: Issues in Mental Health Assessment
Ronald C. Kessler: The categorical versus dimensional controversy in the sociology of mental illness
John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross: Measurement for a Human Science
5. Current Prevalence Estimates in the United States
Ronald C. Kessler, Olga Demler, Richard G. Frank, Mark Olfson, Harold Alan Pincus, Ellen E. Walters, Phillip Wang, Kenneth B. Wells, and Alan M. Zaslavsky: Prevalence and Treatment of Mental Disorders, 1990-2003
Allan V.Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield: The Epidemic in Mental Illness: Clinical Fact or Survey Artifact?
6. Current Cross-National Prevalence Estimates
Ronald C. Kessler et al. for the WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium: Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of Mental Disorders in the World Health Organizations' World Mental Health Survey Initiative
Part III. The Social Origins of Mental Health and Illness
7. Basic Concepts
Carol S. Aneshensel: Research in Mental Health: Social Etiology versus Social Consequences
Leonard I. Pearlin: The sociological study of stress"
Peggy A. Thoits: Multiple Identities and Psychological Well-Being: "A Reformulation and Test of the Social Isolation Hypothesis"
R. Jay Turner, Blair Wheaton, and Donald A. Lloyd: The epidemiology of social stress
8. Roles, Social Statuses, and Mental Health
John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross: Sex Differences in Distress: Real or Artifact?
Robin W. Simon: Revisiting the Relationships among Gender, Marital Status, and Mental Health
Ranae J. Evenson and Robin W. Simon: Clarifying the Relationship Between Parenthood and Depression
Richard A. Miech, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt, Bradley R. Entner Wright, and Phil A. Silva: Low socioeconomic status and mental disorders: A longitudinal study of selection and causation during young adulthood
Mark Tausig and Rudy Fenwick: Recession and Well-Being
David R. Williams, Yan Yu, James S. Jackson, and Norman B. Anderson: Racial differences in physical and mental health: Socio-economic status, stress and discrimination
Jane D. McLeod: Childhood Parental Loss and Adult Depression
Scott Schieman, Karen van Gundy, and John Taylor: Status, Role, and Resource Explanations for Age Patterns in Psychological Distress
Benedict Carely: The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost
Part IV. Stigma and the Social Dimensions of the Experience of Mental Illness
9. Labeling
Thomas Scheff: The Role of the Mentally Ill and the Dynamics of Mental Disorder
Walter R. Gove: Societal Reaction as an Explanation of Mental Illness: An Evaluation
Bruce G. Link, Francis T. Cullen, Elmer Struening, Patrick E. Shrout, and Bruce P. Dohrenwend: A Modified Labeling Theory Approach to Mental Disorders: An Empirical Assessment
10. Stigma
Bernice Pescosolido, Bernice A., Jack K. Martin, Bruce G. Link, Saeko Kikuzawa, Giovanni Burgos, and Ralph Swindle: Americans' Views of Mental Illness and Health at Century's End: Continuity and Change
11. Help-seeking and Utilization
Erving Goffman: The Moral Career of the Mental Patient
Bernice Pescosolido, Carol A. Boyer, and Keri M. Lubell: The Social Dynamics of Responding to Mental Health Problems
David Karp: Illness and Identity
Part V. The History and Social Organization of Mental Health Policy and Treatment
12. Socio-historical Perspectives on Mental Health Treatment and Policy
David J. Rothman: The New World of the Asylum
Joseph P. Morrissey and Howard H. Goldman: Cycles of Reform in the Care of the Chronically Mentally III
Fred E. Markowitz: Psychiatric Hospital Capacity, Homelessness, and Crime Arrest Rates
13. Sociological Perspectives on Contemporary Mental Health Care and Treatment
Alissa Lincoln: Psychiatric Emergency Room Decision-Making, Social Control and the 'Undeserving Sick
Sarah Rosenfield: Labeling Mental Illness: The Effects of Received Services and Perceived Stigma on Life Satisfaction
Bernice Pescodolido, Eric R. Wright, and William Patrick Sullivan: Communities of Care: A Theoretical Perspective on Case Management Models in Mental Health
Teresa L. Sheid: Reluctant Managers and Ideologies of Care
Part VI. Mental Illness, The Family, and Society
14. Mental Illness and the Family
Harriet Lefley: Caregiver Stress and Dimensions of Family Burden
Susan A. Muhlbauer: Navigating the Storm of Mental Illness: Phases in the Family's Journey
15. Mental Illness and Social Problems
Linda A. Teplin and Nancy S. Pruett: Police as Streetcorner Psychiatrist: Managing the Mentally Ill
Eric Silver and Brent Teasdale: Mental Disorder and Violence: An Examination of Stressful Life Events and Social Support
Thomas R. Insel: Assessing the Economic Costs of Serious Mental Illness
Deborah K. Padgett: There's No Place Like (a) Home: Ontological Security Among Persons with Serious Mental Illness in the United States
16. The Consumer and Family Movements
Athena Helen McLean: From Ex-patient Alternatives to Consumer Options: Consequences of Consumerism for Psychiatric Consumers and the Ex-patient Movement
17. The Future of the Mental Health Care System
E. Fuller Torrey: Fixing the System
Excerpts from the Executive Summary of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's Final Report

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Jane D. McLeod is Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculties Department of Sociology at Indiana University-Bloomington. Eric R. Wright is Professor and Director of the Center for Health Policy, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

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