Originally published in 1985, at a time when the previous 2 decades had witnessed dramatic changes in the US mental health system. These included the decline of the state mental hospital, the birth of the community mental health center and the expansion of psychiatric services in general hospitals. The inevitable results of the changes were the creation of a huge nursing home population of the chronically mentally ill, and the multiplication of urban ‘street people’. Mental health care is uncoordinated and underfunded. The historical roots of these problems are examined in this book which is designed both as a professional reference volume and as a text for students in the sociology of mental health and illness. The contributors are drawn from diverse fields, including sociology, psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology and social history.
Part 1: Historical and Conceptual Concerns 1. Madness and Segregative Control: The Rise of the Insane Asylum Andrew T. Scull 2. The Enduring Asylum David Rothman 3. Cycles of Institutional Reform Joseph P Morrissey, Howard H. Goldman and Lorraine V. Klerman Part 2: The Changing Mental Health System 4. The De Facto US Mental Health Services System: A Public Health Perspective Darrel A. Regier, Irving D. Goldberg and Carl A. Taube 5. Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health Services Ellen L. Bassuk and Samuel Gerson 6. General Hospital Psychiatry: Overview From a Sociological Perspective Leona L. Bachrach 7. Community Control or Control of the Community? The Case of the Community Mental Health Center Alberta J. Nassi 8. The Mental Patients’ Rights Movement, and Mental Health Institutional Change Phil Brown Part 3: Providers and Treatments 9. Professional Training and the Future of Psychiatry Donald Light 10. Prediction in Psychiatry: An Example of Misplaced Confidence in Experts Joseph J. Cocozza and Henry J. Steadman 11. Medical Dominance: Psychoactive Drugs and Mental Health Policy Thomas J. Scheff 12. Clinical Psychopharmacology in its Twentieth Year George E. Crane Part 4: Alternatives to Traditional Mental Health Services 13. Mental Hospitals and Alternative Care: Non-institutionalization as Potential Public Policy Charles A. Kiesler 14. Self-Help and Mental Health Audrey J. Gartner and Frank Riessman 15. Inside the Mental Patients’ Association Judi Chamberlin 16. Psychology of Women: Feminist Therapy Virginia K. Donovan and Ronnie Littenberg 17. From Confinement to Community: The Radical Transformation of an Italian Mental Hospital Anne M. Lovell 18. The Collective Approach to Psychiatric Practice in the People’s Republic of China Yi-Chuang Lu
Biography
Phil Brown is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at Brown University, USA.
‘One of the strengths of the anthology is Brown’s own introduction. He provides a clear if abbreviated summary of key changes in the structure and delivery of US mental health since the 1950s.’ Valerie Gerrand, International Social Work, Vol 29, Issue 4.
