Creating Mental Illness
eBook - ePub

Creating Mental Illness

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Creating Mental Illness

About this book

In this surprising book, Allan V. Horwitz argues that our current conceptions of mental illness as a disease fit only a small number of serious psychological conditions and that most conditions currently regarded as mental illness are cultural constructions, normal reactions to stressful social circumstances, or simply forms of deviant behavior.

"Thought-provoking and important. . .Drawing on and consolidating the ideas of a range of authors, Horwitz challenges the existing use of the term mental illness and the psychiatric ideas and practices on which this usage is based. . . . Horwitz enters this controversial territory with confidence, conviction, and clarity."—Joan Busfield, American Journal of Sociology

"Horwitz properly identifies the financial incentives that urge therapists and drug companies to proliferate psychiatric diagnostic categories. He correctly identifies the stranglehold that psychiatric diagnosis has on research funding in mental health. Above all, he provides a sorely needed counterpoint to the most strident advocates of disease-model psychiatry."—Mark Sullivan, Journal of the American Medical Association

"Horwitz makes at least two major contributions to our understanding of mental disorders. First, he eloquently draws on evidence from the biological and social sciences to create a balanced, integrative approach to the study of mental disorders. Second, in accomplishing the first contribution, he provides a fascinating history of the study and treatment of mental disorders. . . from early asylum work to the rise of modern biological psychiatry."—Debra Umberson, Quarterly Review of Biology

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Yes, you can access Creating Mental Illness by Allan V. Horwitz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Psychology & Psychiatry & Mental Health. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Title Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Introduction: The Proliferation of Mental Illnesses
  8. One: A Concept of Mental Disorder
  9. Two: The Expansion of Mental Illnesses in Dynamic Psychiatry
  10. Three: The Emergence of Diagnostic Psychiatry
  11. Four: The Extension of Mental Illnesses into the Community
  12. Five: The Structuring of Mental Disorders
  13. Six: The Biological Foundations of Diagnostic Psychiatry
  14. Seven: Social Causes of Distress
  15. Eight: Diagnostic Psychiatry and Therapy
  16. Conclusion: Mental Illnesses as Social Constructions
  17. Notes
  18. References
  19. Index