SOC318H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Individualism, Paraphilia, Altruistic Suicide
SOC 318: Lecture #2
May 9th 2018
Class 2: The Sociological Study of Mental Health
Wheaton (2001): Sociology and mental health?
- DUAL role of sociologist of mental health:
o Articulate social causation in mental health study OUTSIDE of sociology;
▪ Sth that seems the most personal/individual can be theorized as pattern
variables
o Make mental health IMPORTANT within sociology
o How diff societal arrangements + experiences in societies = affect mental state
- Sociology of mental health starts with 2 basic claims:
o Emotional inequality begins with + is carried by the social environment
▪ Inequalities in emotions as central (race + class + gender)
▪ While all individuals are created equal, all individuals are not NOW
emotionally equal
▪ Locating emotional inequality within persons as pathologies:
categorization of ppl can be a function of the context that ppl find
themselves in
o How individuals function emotionally & how this functioning varies across
individuals = has consequences for society
▪ By seeing emotional distress/discomfort located in the social fabric of
society = enables us to focus on which aspect of society needs to be
changed + needs to be more inclusive/exclusive
▪ Shift from individual level (emotional) TO social level = approach more as
a sociologist than a psychologist
▪ Emphasizing social causation??
o The way society organized will inertly allows ppl to feel diff
▪ Consequences for society: next level; less conducive
▪ Shift in society that allows ppl to be less stressed
- These TWO facts are often ignored by the public
Context: Dominance of Biology in Mental Health
- Should biology be central in public discourse about mental disorders + mental health?
o Maybe not! Biology = individual level thinking
o Social environment as FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE of mental health problems
▪ Biological symptoms as consequences of social conditions
▪ E.g., stressed out from demanding work
o Sociology: while there are many mental health disorders influencing genetic
issues, think broadly: WHY disease spread in the ways they are + flow in large
pattern ways?
o Rather individual factors + brain functions = living in social environments: which
source of disorder are more/less social than others
o Why are ppl varied in emotions across individuals AND within one individual
throughout time periods (aligned with societal patterns)
o Biological symptoms as consequences as prior(anti) symptoms that a person was
living in
o Contextualize + go a step back = proximate
Sociology in the study of mental health
- See things like stress process model + social embeddedness of stress + multiple
outcomes of stress + labeling process as COMPLEMENTARY to psychiatric models
- Sociologists deal with COMPLEXITY of mental health
o E.g., category vs. continuum
o Psychiatrists, due to need to help individuals suffering from mental health
problems, tend to want to be able to categorize mental health issues.
Sociologists do not need to do this
o Psychiatrists face individual patients & want to be medicalized
▪ Eg) categories of illness/conditions for psychiatrists
o Sociologists think abt continuum = look at things deeply + socially
▪ Eg) how can society + programs be changed to increase general
happiness
- The competing models for mental health:
o sociological view in natural science
o psychiatric model focus on pathology + disease + individual level
▪ those should be used in complementary manner
▪ See which solutions have been utilized
▪ When does it make sense to pull more weight of each = holistic view
Aneshensel + Phelan + Bierman (2013): surveying the field of the sociology of mental health
- Mental Health and Illness as:
o Cognitive: brain functioning + perceptional + mental retardation
▪ Labeled as pathological + illness within a societal context = deemed more
appropriately than others?
o Emotional
o Behavioural
▪ Emotional + behavioural: ordinary reactions to bad situations that
individual might develop
What is a sociological orientation to mental health?
- Examining how mental illness is defined by society as particular actions + feelings +
thoughts are seen as dysfunctional
o How NORMAL (statistical sense: frequently occurring behaviours like sad +
anxious) human behaviours become dysfunctional
o Also examining the CONSEQUENCES of being deemed mentally ill
- Look for social process and social arrangements
Mapping out the field
- Three key fields of Sociology of Mental Health
o Social Construction of Mental Illness
▪ Focus on “mental illness”: sth that have been labeled as mental illness in
some places but not others & over diff time period
▪ Eg) video game addiction
o Social and Institutional Antecedents of Mental Health Problems
▪ Might not have value judgment; but agree on a def
▪ It exists; but let’s look at WHERE + HOW it exists
▪ Instead of HOW sth is been labeled; by WHICH mechanisms influence
this mental health problems & WHY do ppl experience & HOW do ppl
experience it
o Social Consequences of Mental Health Problems
▪ Studying a mental health issue: what does that lead to?
▪ Eg) suicide
• Consequences of living in society with high suicide rates? = extend
consequences of consequences
Document Summary
Class 2: the sociological study of mental health. Sociology of mental health starts with 2 basic claims: emotional inequality begins with + is carried by the social environment. These two facts are often ignored by the public. Should biology be central in public discourse about mental disorders + mental health: maybe not! See things like stress process model + social embeddedness of stress + multiple outcomes of stress + labeling process as complementary to psychiatric models. Sociologists deal with complexity of mental health: e. g. , category vs. continuum, psychiatrists, due to need to help individuals suffering from mental health problems, tend to want to be able to categorize mental health issues. Aneshensel + phelan + bierman (2013): surveying the field of the sociology of mental health. It e(cid:454)ists; (cid:271)ut let"s look at where + how it e(cid:454)ists. Radical view: to what extent does the culturally variability of mental illness shape how it should be viewed, medically diagnosable or being labelled.
