Sage Publications Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A-to-Z Guide

Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A to Z Guide looks at recent reports that suggest an astonishing rise in mental illness and considers such questions as: Are there truly more mentally ill people now or are there just more people being diagnosed and treated? What are the roles of economics and the pharmacological industry in this controversy? At the core of what is going on with mental illness in America and around the world, the editors suggest, is cultural sociology: How differing cultures treat mental illness and, in turn, how mental health patients are affected by the culture.In this illuminating multidisciplinary reference, expert scholars explore the culture of mental illness from the non-clinical perspectives of sociology, history, psychology, epidemiology, economics, public health policy, and finally, the mental health patients themselves. Key themes includeCultural Comparisons of Mental Health Disorders; Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness Around the World; Economics; Epidemiology; Mental Health Practitioners; Non-Drug Treatments; Patient, the Psychiatry, and Psychology; Psychiatry and Space; Psychopharmacology; Public Policy; Social History; and Sociology. Key Features:This two-volume A-Z work, available in both print and electronic formats, includes close to 400 articles by renowned experts in their respective fields. An Introduction, a thematic Reader’s Guide, a Glossary, and a Resource Guide to Key Books, Journals, and Associations and their web sites enhance this invaluable reference. A chronology places the cultural sociology of mental illness in historical context. 150 photos bring concepts to life. The range and scope of this Encyclopedia is vivid testimony to the intellectual vitality of the field and will make a useful contribution to the next generation of sociological research on the cultural sociology of mental illness. Key Themes: Cultural Comparisons of Mental Health Disorders Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness Around the World Economics Epidemiology Mental Health Practitioners Non-Drug Treatments Patient, The Psychiatry and Psychology Psychiatry and Space Psychopharmacology Public Policy Social History Sociology   About the Author Andrew Scull was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He obtained his B.A. with first-class honors from Balliol College at the University of Oxford in politics, philosophy, and economics, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University. From 1976 to 1977, he was a postdoctoral fellow in medical history at University College London. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the University of California, San Diego, where he has been Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies since 1994.Among others, he has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University, and he has served as director of a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar on “Madness and Society.” From 1992 to 1993, he was president of the Society for the Social History of Medicine.Scull’s work has been translated into Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. He has published more than 100 articles in leading journals in law, psychiatry, sociology, medical history, social history, neurology, and medicine. His many books include Decarceration (1977, 2nd ed. 1984); Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (1979); The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700–1900 (1993); Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine (2005); and Hysteria (2009).