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Mental Health

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Social, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Health

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Abstract

The sociology of mental health speaks to central concerns within sociology. This chapter focuses on three important trends within the field of mental health studies: the increasingly influential ‘citizenship’ of mental health consumers; the shift from psychodynamic to biologistic understandings of mental illness; and the ever increasing psychologization of everyday life. The chapter considers deinstitutionalization, the development of psychotropic pharmaceuticals, the emergence of and debate surrounding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), diagnostic inflation (and disease mongering), the rise of human rights and survivor discourses in psychiatry, and the development of peer support. A case study is discussed of the shifting constructions of salud mental (mental health) in Argentina, including the rejection of biological psychiatry epitomised in the DSM. The chapter concludes that historical shifts are bringing the politics of mental health back to the centre of the sociological stage in the twenty-first century.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Kevin Dew & Allison Kirkman

  2. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Anne Scott

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  1. Kevin Dew
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Dew, K., Scott, A., Kirkman, A. (2016). Mental Health. In: Social, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31508-9_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31508-9_13

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