Abstract
For both laypeople and mental health professionals, the nature, causes, and cures of mental illness are found in the symptoms of specific disordered individuals. Mental illness, as a cultural category, is rooted in the personality or, more recently, in the brain. These individualistic conceptions of mental illness are entrenched in both common sense and in the large and powerful mental health professions—psychiatry, psychology, social work, and nursing—that define, study, and treat mental illness. Sociologists who study mental disorders must confront deeply rooted asociological models that have a high degree of social legitimation.
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Horwitz, A.V. (1999). The Sociological Study of Mental Illness. In: Aneshensel, C.S., Phelan, J.C. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36223-1_4
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