Mainstream approaches to mental health and illness

An Emphasis on Individuals and a De-Emphasis of Inequalities

Bibliographic Data

ID4217924
AuthorsJan Horsfall (The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume2
Issue2
Pages217-231
Publication date1998-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/136345939800200206
OpenAlexW1559610808
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

This theoretical paper argues that structured class, ethnicity and gender factors systematically contribute to people's vulnerability to experiencing a psychiatric disorder. In their denial of group-based contributions to psychiatric problems, mainstream psychiatric disciplines focus on the disturbed individual. It argues that the concept of individualism is a crucial modern European epistemological assumption which underpins definitions of normality and abnormality. An investigation of contemporary mainstream mental health texts reveals their trenchant individualism and the marginalization of life circumstances arising from class, ethnicity and gender relations with regard to assessing, and working with, people with psychiatric difficulties. The paper argues that modern non-ideal human qualities are associated with the social 'other'. Middle class, Eurocentric and patriarchal assumptions increase the likelihood that people outside these categories are more likely to receive psychiatric diagnoses. Consequently the discipline of psychiatry constructs the notion of the mad 'other'. Mainstream mental health nursing, clinical psychology and health psychology support medical psychiatry in individualizing and psychologizing the difficulties experienced by consumers of psychiatric services

Denial · Ethnic group · Individualism · Mainstream · Medicalization · Mental health · Mental illness · Normality · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Social class · Sociology · Vulnerability (computing · Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Schizophrenia research and treatment