1.
Social Constructionism 2

2.
The looking-glass self (Cooley)

3.
Health case study: Mental Illness

4.
Erving Goffman - Asylums <ul><li>Explored mental illness. </li></ul><ul><li>Very critical of the POSITIVISTIC APPROACH to mental health. </li></ul>

5.
THE POSITIVIST APPROACH <ul><li>Bio-medical model…..CAUSATION! </li></ul><ul><li>Reduces mental illness to a ‘ disease of the brain’ or due to ‘ disturbing experiences’ </li></ul><ul><li>It is something ‘external’ – which interferes with the naturally, balanced human organism </li></ul><ul><li>It requires treatment (1) Therapy, (2) Drugs </li></ul><ul><li>(3) surgery/lobotomy </li></ul>

6.
Goffman’s view… Mental illness is a label that is applied to certain types of behaviour in certain circumstances. Mental illness is socially constructed. There are certain forms of behaviour that are NOT madness – but we choose to define them as such. Nice one dude! Deviant behaviour is behaviour so labelled! Howie B

7.
<ul><li>MENTAL ILLNESS IS RELATIVE! </li></ul><ul><li>‘ Hysteria’ – a condition where women lost control of themselves..breathless..over emotional caused by womb (hyster) cutting off oxygen to the brain </li></ul><ul><li>‘ Moral Imbecility’ – an illness where women who chose to have sex outside of marriage were seen as suffering from a mental condition..no moral self control </li></ul>

8.
Thomas Scheff <ul><li>“ Mental Illness is a dustbin </li></ul><ul><li>of bizarre behaviour that can’t be explained elsewhere” </li></ul>

9.
Goffman noted…. <ul><li>We all feel depressed/act odd sometimes – but most of us do not get labelled as mentally ill. </li></ul><ul><li>People learn the mentally ill ‘stereotype’ and what is classed as mentally ill. </li></ul><ul><li>It can be a kind of social control. </li></ul><ul><li>If people accept these labels – they respond to the label and change their behaviour. </li></ul><ul><li>Society reacts to the label. </li></ul>

10.
The career of the mental patient <ul><li>He was concerned with : </li></ul><ul><li>(a) why some people are labelled and others </li></ul><ul><li>not </li></ul><ul><li>(b) what are the consequences of being </li></ul><ul><li>labelled mentally ill </li></ul>

11.
<ul><li>People are defined as mentally ill and then redefine themselves in light of this label </li></ul><ul><li>Once labelled – the mentally ill are helped by professionals into accepting this definition…in the 1960s = institutionalised! </li></ul><ul><li>The ‘patient’ has to undergo a stripping of their personality…loss of freedom..control </li></ul>

12.
Why are some people labelled as mentally ill? <ul><li>It isn’t their behaviour which is important – but how others respond to them. </li></ul><ul><li>People are labelled as it is in someone else’s interest to do so. </li></ul>

13.
Laing & Esterson – Sanity, Madness & the Family <ul><li>The Abbots family – put their daughter in a mental institution as they believed she would try and kill her father. </li></ul><ul><li>They saw her as a paranoid schizophrenic. </li></ul><ul><li>BUT she wasn’t – the family were snooping/monitoring/talking behind her back (they didn’t want her to have independence). </li></ul><ul><li>The label solved their problem – and gave them control over her. </li></ul>

14.
What happens after being labelled? <ul><li>The patient begins a career – like a master status. </li></ul><ul><li>Their actions/words are scrutinised in light of the label ..its very hard to deny the label. </li></ul><ul><li>Rosenham et al. </li></ul><ul><li>Goffman – the mortification process. </li></ul><ul><li>Any efforts to challenge label – led to increased control to ‘help’ the patient. </li></ul>

15.
Critique <ul><li>People can display symptoms without being labelled. </li></ul><ul><li>Ignores the reality of mental illness and how certain social groups are over-represented as mentally ill (do these trends suggest a structural basis for mental illness in society) </li></ul>

16.
Mental Illness & Social Class <ul><li>The poor/deprived experience greater levels of despair and breakdown. </li></ul>

17.
Mental Illness & Gender <ul><li>Brown & Harris – ‘social origins of depression’ </li></ul><ul><li>South London – working class women </li></ul><ul><li>Why? </li></ul><ul><li>Major life events – long term poverty </li></ul><ul><li>- marital breakdown </li></ul><ul><li>Protective/Vulnerability factors – isolation and low protection from key ‘life stressors’ </li></ul>

18.
<ul><li>Lipshitz – women’s mental health links to their role in wider society. </li></ul><ul><li>Women seen as dependent, emotional, irrational. </li></ul><ul><li>When they step-outside and act different to this role –they are labelled – to be controlled! </li></ul>