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This thoroughly revised edition of
The Sociology of Mental Disorders presents a biosocial model for understanding mental disorders, which integrates the sociological paradigm with current research in the epidemiology of mental disorders and on biological features of mental disorders. It shows the many ways in which macrosocial factors-such as stratification, integration, and culture-and microsocial factors-such as self-concept formation, socialization, and imitation-influence the distribution of mental disorders throughout the population, in combination with psychological and biological factors. The author adopts an epistemological point of view, comparing and contrasting various frameworks for comprehending bizarre forms of deviance that are labeled as mental disorders, including a definition of mental disorder that is purely sociological. He introduces new data and frameworks concerning the process of social stratification and mental disorders, the diffusion of somatoform disorders, mental disorders in the modern world, and the insane society.
Original data from classic research studies in the field are introduced and discussed to illustrate the application of sociological frameworks to the problem of bizarre deviance. Carefully selected first-person accounts of the experience of bizarre deviance add poignancy to the presentation, along with examples of official diagnostic criteria.
List of contents
Preface
The Social Construction of Bizarre BehaviorsIntroduction
The Social Construction of Reality
Bizarre Behaviors as Disease
Bizarre Behaviors as Deviance
Biosocial Framework For the Etiology of Mental Disorders
A Definition of Mental Disorder
The Social Epidemiology of Mental DisordersThe Methods of Epidemiology
Basic Data in Psychiatric Epidemiology
Role, Identity, Suggestibility, and StressRole and Identity
Suggestibility and Mental Disorders
Stress and Mental Disorders
Integration: Community and FamilyCommunity
Family
Socioeconomic StratificationCausation: Environmental and Individual Factors
Selection and Drift: Individual and Environmental Factors
Other Concepts of Socioeconomic Disadvantage
The Social Transmission of PsychopathologyAcute Epidemics
Chronic Epidemics
Theories of Collective Behavior
Relevant Social Psychological Processes
Sociologic Framework for Somatoform Epidemics (Rescite)
Social Aspects of TreatmentBizarre Behaviors and Use of Services
The Organization of Treatment
Diffusion of Therapeutic Innovations in Psychiatry
Ideology, Technology, and Structure in Psychiatry
Mental Disorder in the Modern WorldThe Individual in Modern Society
Epidemiologic Evidence
Modern Society as Insane
Bibliography
Index
About the author
WILLIAM W. EATON is Professor of Mental Hygiene in the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He is also Director of the NIMH Training Program in Psychiatric Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to the first and second edition of
The Sociology of Mental Disorders (1980 and 1985), he has authored numerous scientific articles and coedited three books.
