Sociology - Sociology of Mental Health

Catalog description

This course is designed to give an introduction to the history, conceptions, and social determinants of mental health and mental illness. We will be paying explicit attention to the sociological perspective on mental health. A unique feature of this perspective is its emphasis not in the brain or genetics, but in how social factors influence and are influenced by mental health status. This course will focus on several topics, including 1) how the definition of mental health/illness changes across time and place; 2) the social causes and consequences of mental illness; 3) the unequal distribution of mental health/illness across social groups; 4) societal responses to mental illness in the healthcare system, prisons, and the media, and 5) other select topics.