Sociology of Mental Illness

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.

• I. DEFINITIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS; WHAT IS MENTAL ILLNESS? PSYCHIATRIC PERSPECTIVES; Medical Model of Madness: The Emergence of Mental Illness, Peter Conrad and Joseph W. Schneider; Mental Illness as Psychiatric Disorder, Martha Livingston Bruce; WHAT IS MENTAL ILLNESS? SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES; The Discovery of Hyperkinesis, Peter Conrad; The Three Faces of PMS: The Professional, Gendered, and Scientific Structuring of a Psychiatric Disorder, Anne E. Figert; CULTURE AND THE DEFINITION OF MENTAL ILLNESS; What Is a Psychiatric Diagnosis?, Arthur Kleinman; Did Antidepressants Depress Japan?, Kathryn Schultz; II. PREVALENCE AND PATTERNS OF MENTAL ILLNESS; THE MEASUREMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS; Issues in Mental Health Assessment, Galen E. Switzer, Mary Amanda Dew, and Evelyn J. Bromet; The Categorical Versus Dimensional Controversy in the Sociology of Mental Illness, Ronald C. Kessler; Measurement for a Human Science, John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross; CURRENT PREVALENCE ESTIMATES IN THE UNITED STATES; Prevalence and Treatment of Mental Disorders, 1990-2003, 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; The Epidemic in Mental Illness: Clinical Fact or Survey Artifact?, Allan V.Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield; CURRENT CROSS-NATIONAL PREVALENCE ESTIMATES; Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of Mental Disorders in the World Health Organizations' World Mental Health Survey Initiative, Ronald C. Kessler et al. for the WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium; III. THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS; BASIC CONCEPTS; Research in Mental Health: Social Etiology versus Social Consequences, Carol S. Aneshensel; The Sociological Study of Stress, Leonard I. Pearlin; Multiple Identities and Psychological Well-Being: A Reformulation and Test of the Social Isolation Hypothesis, Peggy A. Thoits; The Epidemiology of Social Stress, R. Jay Turner, Blair Wheaton, and Donald A. Lloyd; ROLES, SOCIAL STATUSES, AND MENTAL HEALTH; Sex Differences in Distress: Real or Artifact?, John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross; Revisiting the Relationships among Gender, Marital Status, and Mental Health, Robin W. Simon; Clarifying the Relationship between Parenthood and Depression, Ranae J. Evenson and Robin W. Simon; Low Socioeconomic Status and Mental Disorders: A Longitudinal Study of Selection and Causation during Young Adulthood, Richard A. Miech, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt, Bradley R. Entner Wright, and Phil A. Silva; Recession and Well-Being, Mark Tausig and Rudy Fenwick; Racial Differences in Physical and Mental Health: Socioeconomic Status, Stress, and Discrimination, David R. Williams, Yan Yu, James S. Jackson, and Norman B. Anderson; Childhood Parental Loss and Adult Depression, Jane D. McLeod; Status, Role, and Resource Explanations for Age Patterns in Psychological Distress, Scott Schieman, Karen van Gundy, and John Taylor; The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost, Benedict Carey; IV. STIGMA AND THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE EXPERIENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS; LABELING; The Role of the Mentally Ill and the Dynamics of Mental Disorder: A Research Framework, Thomas Scheff; Societal Reaction as an Explanation of Mental Illness: An Evaluation, Walter R. Gove; A Modified Labeling Theory Approach to Mental Disorders: An Empirical Assessment, Bruce G. Link, Francis T. Cullen, Elmer Struening, Patrick E. Shrout, and Bruce P. Dohrenwend; STIGMA; Americans' Views of Mental Illness and Health at Century's End: Continuity and Change, Bernice A. Pescosolido, Jack K. Martin, Bruce G. Link, Saeko Kikuzawa, Giovanni Burgos, Ralph Swindle, and Jo Phelan; HELP-SEEKING AND UTILIZATION; The Moral Career of the Mental Patient, Erving Goffman; The Social Dynamics of Responding to Mental Health Problems, Bernice A. Pescosolido, Carol A. Boyer, and Keri M. Lubell; Illness and Identity, David Karp; V. THE HISTORY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF MENTAL HEALTH POLICY AND TREATMENT; SOCIOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT AND POLICY; The New World of the Asylum, David J. Rothman; Cycles of Reform in the Care of the Chronically Mentally Ill, Joseph P. Morrissey and Howard H. Goldman; Psychiatric Hospital Capacity, Homelessness, and Crime Arrest Rates, Fred E. Markowitz; SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPORARY MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND TREATMENT; Psychiatric Emergency Room Decision Making, Social Control and the 'Undeserving Sick,' Alisa Lincoln; Labeling Mental Illness: The Effects of Received Services and Perceived Stigma on Life Satisfaction, Sarah Rosenfield; Communities of Care: A Theoretical Perspective on Case Management Models in Mental Health, Bernice A. Pescosolido, Eric R. Wright, and William Patrick Sullivan; Reluctant Managers and Ideologies of Care, Teresa L. Sheid; VI. MENTAL ILLNESS, THE FAMILY, AND SOCIETY; MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE FAMILY; Caregiver Stress and Dimensions of Family Burden, Harriet Lefley; Navigating the Storm of Mental Illness: Phases in the Family's Journey, Susan A. Muhlbauer; MENTAL ILLNESS AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS; Police as Streetcorner Psychiatrist: Managing the Mentally Ill, Linda A. Teplin and Nancy S. Pruett; Mental Disorder and Violence: An Examination of Stressful Life Events and Social Support, Eric Silver and Brent Teasdale; Assessing the Economic Costs of Serious Mental Illness, Thomas R. Insel; There's No Place Like (a) Home: Ontological Security Among Persons with Serious Mental Illness in the United States, Deborah K. Padgett; THE CONSUMER AND FAMILY MOVEMENTS; From Ex-patient Alternatives to Consumer Options: Consequences of Consumerism for Psychiatric Consumers and the Ex-patient Movement, Athena Helen McLean; THE FUTURE OF THE MENTAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM; Fixing the System, E. Fuller Torrey; Excerpts from the executive summary of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's final report

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 socialconstruction 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.