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Understanding the social process of diagnosis is critical to improving doctor-patient relationships and health outcomes. Diagnosis, the classification tool of medicine, serves an important social role. It confers social status on those who diagnose, and it impacts the social status of those diagnosed. Studying diagnosis from a sociological perspective offers clinicians and students a rich and sometimes provocative view of medicine and the cultures in which it is practiced. Social Issues in Diagnosis describes how diagnostic labels and the process of diagnosis are anchored in groups and structures as much as they are in the interactions between patient and doctor. The sociological perspective...
This engaging Research Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of research on social factors and mental health, examining how important it is to consider the social context in which mental health issues arise, and are dealt with in the mental health care system. It illustrates how social factors affect the interactive process of psychiatric diagnosis and how society responds to people who are labelled as mentally ill.
From the 1950s to 1980s, Ohio obstetrician gynecologist James Burt performed a bizarre procedure that he termed "love surgery" on hundreds of new mothers, not bothering to get their informed consent. The Love Surgeon asks tough questions about Burt's heinous acts and what they reveal about the failures of the medical establishment.
Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A to Z Guide looks at recent reports that suggest an astonishing rise in mental illness and considers such questions as: Are there truly more mentally ill people now or are there just more people being diagnosed and treated? What are the roles of economics and the pharmacological industry in this controversy? At the core of what is going on with mental illness in America and around the world, the editors suggest, is cultural sociology: How differing cultures treat mental illness and, in turn, how mental health patients are affected by the culture. In this illuminating multidisciplinary reference, expert scholars explore the culture of mental illness f...
From Residency to Retirement tells the stories of twenty American doctors over the last half century, which saw a period of continuous, turbulent, and transformative changes to the U.S. health care system. The cohort’s experiences are reflective of the generation of physicians who came of age as presidents Carter and Reagan began to focus on costs and benefits of health services. Mizrahi observed and interviewed these physicians in six timeframes ending in 2016. Beginning with medical school in the mid-1970s, these physicians reveal the myriad fluctuations and uncertainties in their professional practice, working conditions, collegial relationships, and patient interactions. In their own w...
After Frieda Hoffman’s second miscarriage, she felt alone, ignorant, and overwhelmed with emotions. Finding little literature or support available, her entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and she decided to create the resource she wished she’d had: real stories about pregnancy loss from real women without the off-putting lens of religion or academia so typical of the self-help genre. Through Hoffman’s own journey and those of nineteen women she interviewed, Carry Me explores universal themes of grief, bearing witness, transforming adversity into opportunity, and the paradox of feeling alone while sharing a common experience. The diverse women and narratives unpack the physical, emotional,...
The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness explains sociology’s key contributions to our understanding of mental health, and serves as a strong counterpoint to the medical approach to the subject. Using both micro and macro-level theories, particularly social constructionism, the text shows the subjective nature of mental illness and systems of diagnosis and treatment. It also emphasizes how social conditions and relationships create life pathways toward mental health and psychological struggles, and uses the concept of "patient career" to describe how individuals interact with mental health professionals. In addition, the text explores the connections between mental health and social problems such as terrorism, substance abuse, criminal violence, suicide, and domestic violence.
The biases that permeate the American healthcare system are nearly invisible; invisible to all but those they handicap. In Healthcare and Human Dignity, law professor Frank McClellan recounts the experiences of some such individuals and highlights the importance of establishing a healthcare system that prioritizes human dignity.