*SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Catalog description

Focuses on how social and cultural context impact mental health, and how the very concepts of mental illness, abnormal or crazy are constructed in the first place, then applied by both “mental health” professionals and persons in their everyday lives. Examines major social models of “mental illness,” aiming to understand and evaluate their basic concepts and assumptions, as well as the response to “mental illness,” including how family, friends, troubled persons and professionals interpret, define and respond to “mental illness” and the processes shaping the policies and practices of the mental health enterprise.