Social Psychiatry

Social psychiatry is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the interpersonal and cultural context of mental disorders and mental wellbeing. This book is a comprehensive guide to social psychiatry for psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health nurses. Divided into five sections, the text begins with an overview and the basics of social psychiatry. The following sections cover social dimensions of psychiatric disorders, social interventions and therapies, and social issues and mental health. The book is presented in an easy to read format and explains both theoretical and clinical aspects of psychosocial assessment and management. The multidisciplinary text features contributions from worldwide experts, as well as diagrams and tables to enhance learning. Key points Comprehensive guide to social psychiatry Covers both theoretical and clinical aspects of psychosocial assessment and management Multidisciplinary, international author team Features diagrams and tables to enhance learning

The field of academic psychiatry is in crisis, everywhere. It is not merely a health crisis of resource scarcity or distribution, competing claims and practice models, or level of development from one country to another, but a deeper, more fundamental crisis about the very definition and the theoretical basis of psychiatry. The kinds of questions that represent this crisis include whether psychiatry is a social science (like psychology or anthropology), whether it is better understood as part of the humanities (like philosophy, history, and literature), or if the future of psychiatry is best assured as a branch of medicine (based on genetics and neuroscience)? In fact, the question often debated since the beginning of modern psychiatry concerns the biomedical model so that part of psychiatry’s perpetual self-questioning is to what extent it is or is not a branch of medicine. This unique and bold volume offers a representative and critical survey of the history of modern psychiatry with deeply informed transdisciplinary readings of the literature and practices of the field by two professors of psychiatry who are active in practice and engaged in research and have dual training in scientific psychiatry and philosophy. In alternating chapters presenting contrasting arguments for the future of psychiatry, the two authors conclude with a dialogue between them to flesh out the theoretical, research, and practical implications of psychiatry’s current crisis, outlining areas of divergence, consensus, and fruitful collaborations to revision psychiatry today. The volume is scrupulously documented but written in accessible language with capsule summaries of key areas of theory, research, and practice for the student and practitioner alike in the social and human sciences and in medicine, psychiatry, and the neurosciences.

This volume is a major international compilation in the field of social psychiatry. Building upon the work of John Wing, director of the Social Psychiatry Unit of the Medical Research Council in Great Britain, these essays make up a series of variations on one of the basic themes of human existence--the interaction between people and their environment. The authors are concerned with social psychiatry; their attention is focused on those aspects of the environment that affect psychological states, whether of persons previously healthy or already suffering from some form of psychiatric illness or disability. Social relationships and psychiatric disturbances are murky ground for investigators, many of whom have become lost or returned with nothing but truisms or unvalidated assertions. In this collection, the editor has brought together leading international researchers in the field who combined a primary emphasis on theory and methodology with an equal regard for direct observation and practice and a scrupulous attention to detail. Insistence on the most accurate measurement possible is the natural consequence of an adherence to clear theoretical positions, which both informs and demands such an approach. This book springs from the work of the Medical Research Council's Social Psychiatric Unit, but because of the breadth of the Unit's concerns over the years, it is also a comprehensive work in the field of social psychiatry. It draws contributions from the leading international figures and will be a landmark work for professionals in social and clinical psychiatry, as well as for anyone with an interest in the social aspects of mental health.

This book describes the body of knowledge that has amassed regarding social influences on mental health. It gives an account of the methods used to collect data and to measure mental illness and its epidemiology, investigates how primary care physicians diagnose and treat mental disorders, and explores the methods being used to prevent mental illness. In the final chapter the author assesses the future of social psychiatry and its relation to other branches of the discipline.

Social psychiatry is concerned with the effects of the social environment on the mental health of the individual, and with the effects of the person with a mental disorder on his/her social environment. The field encompasses social interventions, prevention and the promotion of mental health. This new edition of Principles of Social Psychiatry provides a broad overview of current thinking in this expanding field and will be a source of ideas both in research and for the management of mental disorder. It opens by putting social psychiatry in perspective, within both psychiatry and the social sciences. From the patient's perspective, the outermost influence is the culture in which they live, followed by their neighbourhoods, workmates, and friends and family. The next section considers how we conceptualize the social world, from families through cultural identify and ethnicity to the wider social environment. The book reviews the social determinants and consequences of the major mental disorders before considering interventions and service delivery at various levels to mitigate these. It closes with a review of the social impact of mental illness around the world and a thoughtful essay by the editors on the current state of social psychiatry and where it is heading.

Social psychiatry is concerned with the interaction of the sociocultural environment and the individual. While recognizing the contribution of psychodynamic factors, it focuses on the impact of the environment on the individual and the reciprocal effect of the individual on the environment. Social psychiatry includes such social problems as migration, acculturation, industrialization, poverty, discrimination, and automation. Originally published in 1970, the articles in this timely collection are in five different areas: definitions and parameters, epidemiology, community psychiatry, social problems, and animal studies. Dr Kiev has provided an introduction to each section that makes clear the significance of each of the contributions, and places them in a broad perspective.

This book presents the basic theoretical and historical concepts and it describes current perspectives and data, focusing on good practices in community psychiatry in Greece and in other parts of Europe. Concepts such as the biopsychosocial model, psychiatric reform, psychosocial rehabilitation and the recovery model, as well as new case management models are approached from a critical, anthropocentric perspective. The current socioeconomic crisis in Europe brings with it new realities in mental health systems. New forms of social suffering are forcing the psychiatric community to re-examine what is considered normal. In order to respond to the complexity of the newly emerging needs, social and community psychiatry has been compelled to broaden the objectives of intervention and research alike, developing new and dynamic relations with complementary scientific fields such as social anthropology, psychoanalysis and microeconomics. The present work is the result of collaboration between professionals from across these different fields.

The World Health Organization's concept of health as "the condition of psychophysical and social well-being" must be translated into opera tional terms. The objective is to place the human person within the social system, given that mental health, mental illness, and suffering are individual, despite the fact that their causes are to be sought in the society and environment that surround and interact with the indi vidual. One dimension that must be emphasized in this field is the contin uum that exists between social environment and cerebral development. This continuum consists of the physical and biological features of the two interacting systems: on one hand, the brain managed and con trolled by the genetic program, and, on the other hand, the environ ment, be it natural or social. A simple dichotomy of individual and environment is no longer a sufficient concept in understanding the etiology of mental health and illness. Needless to say, socioepidemiological research in psychiatry and transcultural psychiatry is useful in reaching these ends. However, at the root of mental illness, one can always find the same causal elements: informational chaos, inadequate dietary intake, substance abuse, trauma, conditioning, and so on, which make the interactive systems dysfunctional. Subsequent organic and psychotic disorders occur to the detriment of both the individual and society. Current biological psychiatry is inadequately equipped in treating mental illness.