Psychiatry conventionally regards spirit possession and dramatic healing rituals in non-European societies as forms of abnormality if not mental illness. Roland Littlewood, a psychiatrist and social anthropologist, argues that it is necessary to take into account both social process and personal cultural meaning when explaining psychiatric illness and "deviant" behavior. Littlewood brings anthropological and psychiatric literature to bear on case studies of self-poisoning, agoraphobia, hysteria, chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress, male sexual violence, and eating disorders. He contends that Western psychiatric illnesses are themselves "possession states"―patterns by which individual agency is displaced through an idiom of alien intrusion whether of a spirit or a disease.Pathologies of the West is simultaneously an original approach to psychiatric illness in its international perspective and an introduction to recent developments in the social anthropology of medicine. It examines critically the relevance of phenomenological, structural, and ethological approaches to understanding extreme personal experience. Littlewood argues that anthropology must not simply provide a cultural alternative to sociological critiques of medicine―psychiatry itself should take into account the ways in which cultural values are acted out by individuals. (view table of contents)

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Eugene W. Holland provides an excellent introduction to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's Anti-Oedipus which is widely recognized as one of the most influential texts in philosophy to have appeared in the last thirty years. He lucidly presents the theoretical concerns behind Anti-Oedipus and explores with clarity the diverse influences of Marx, Freud, Nietzsche and Kant on the development of Deleuze & Guattari's thinking. He also examines the wider implications of their work in revitalizing Marxism, environmentalism, feminism and cultural studies.

Product Description: Two ofthe most important notions concerning the rights of people with mental illness are among the most neglected: the first is that human rights and duties are complementary and that both must be considered in constructing a framework for mental health care...read more

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Product Description: Do defective genes give rise to defective thought? The revolution in molecular genetics has indeed given rise to the increasing optimism that advancements in biotechnology will soon uncover the causes of all disturbances of mind and behavior...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Cultural psychiatry is primarily concerned with the transcultural aspects of mental health related to human behavior, psychopathology and treatment. At a clinical level, cultural psychiatry aims to promote culturally relevant mental health care for patients of diverse ethnic or cultural backgrounds...read more

Product Description: Abuse is defined broadly and considered as a widespread phenomenon with a variety of manifestations and contexts. Its consequences, and the responses it may provoke, are discussed in detail with reference to three areas. In the personal context, the impact of abuse on an individual's development, emotional life and ability to participate in society is addressed...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The importance of George Brown's sustained contribution to medical sociology through his longitudinal studies of psychiatric disorder and its relationship to social context is widely recognised. This collection of seventeen chapters exemplifies a particular way of working as a medical sociologist which focuses on the understanding of the meaning of social experiences as the key to an individual's health status...read more

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Product Description: An interdisciplinary volume which draws together the concepts of culture and cognition in the wider context of psychopathology. It provides new perspectives on the etiology, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology by challenging current individualistic models and assumptions, while offering new theoretical formulations that take account of the cultural foundation of the cognition process...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Ethics, Culture, and Psychiatry: International Perspectives is a textbook that explores the best ways to promote the use of the Declaration of Madrid, which outlines ethical standards for psychiatric practice throughout the world...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: `This is a wonderful volume, powerfully written, timely, insightful, and filled with major pieces; the passion, intellectual rigor and sense of history found here promises to shape this field in the decades to come. This volume sets the agenda for the future' - Norman K Denzin, University of Illinois Pathology and the Postmodern explores the relationship between mental distress and social constructionism using new work from eminent scholars in the fields of sociology, psychology and philosophy...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: There are many problems in working psychotherapeutically across cultures, with numerous examples of failure to understand cultural issues. For example, the ignorance of traditional family structures can lead to major diagnostic and therapeutic errors...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Cultural Psychiatry & Medical Anthropology is designed as a textbook for a rapidly expanding new field of interdisiplinary study. As well as a broad overview of the central themes and issues, the book brings together the key writings in the field since the late 19th century...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Gender and Mental Health provides a critical introduction to the ways in which gender affects mental health experiences and mental health service use. The volume is unique in including a policy perspective and an overview-including a look at crime, the law, and service structures-of society's responses to mental disorders. Recent research has challenged basic assumptions that women are more prone than men to mental disorders, and has highlighted the increasing visibility of men in psychiatric statistics in the twentieth century. Yet, gender differences continue to be intertwined with risk factors in socioeconomic conditions and in biased approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Prior here examines the individual experiences of mental disorders for both men and women and explores a range of mental health policy issues including concepts of normality, trends in mental health care legislation and service delivery, the differing impacts of national mental health policies on women and on men, and changing views of disorders linked with sexual identity and orientation. Based on up-to-date information from both the United States and Europe, this volume will be useful to a broad range of scholars and professionals in psychology, sociology, social policy, gender studies, social work, medicine, and law.

Product Description: This comprehensive collection provides a fascinating summary of the debates on the growth of institutional care during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Revising and revisiting Foucault, it looks at the significance of ethnicity, race and gender as well as the impact of political and cultural factors, throughout Britain and in a colonial context...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: This book offers the first comprehensive presentation of the sociology of mental health and illness, including original, contemporary contributions by experts in the relevant aspects of the field. Divided into three sections, the chapters cover the general perspectives in the field, the social determinants of mental health, and current policy areas affecting mental health services...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)