Voices from the Inside: Readings on the Experiences of Mental Illness - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195370457 ISBN 13: 9780195370454

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009

Synopsis

One of sociology's most important missions is giving voice to those whose experiences are typically otherwise blunted, marginalized, or simply ignored. Featuring memorable, first-person accounts of mentally ill individuals, Voices from the Inside: Readings on the Experiences of Mental Illness allows students to connect directly with real-life "experts" who know mental illness all too intimately.

This unique anthology addresses a variety of central topics surrounding mental illness, including suicide, hospitalization, the meanings of medication, the experiences of caregivers, and the stigma attached to mental illness. Each section of readings opens with a "sensitizing" introduction that outlines key questions, specific matters for student consideration, and ways in which social scientists approach relevant substantive issues. The thought-provoking discussion questions following each set of readings are designed to foster vibrant class discussion.

Comprehensive enough to be used throughout a course--but brief enough to be combined with other supplementary materials or a full-scale textbook--Voices from the Inside is ideal for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses on the sociology of mental health and illness. It can also be used in courses in medical sociology, social work and mental health, nursing and mental health, and abnormal psychology.

About this title

About the Author:

David A. Karp is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. His books include Is It Me or My Meds? Living with Antidepressants (2006); The Burden of Sympathy: How Families Cope with Mental Illness (OUP, 2000); and Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness (OUP, 1996), which received the Charles Horton Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Gretchen E. Sisson is is an advanced doctoral student in the Boston College Sociology Department and an alumna of Amherst College.

Review:

"Karp and Sisson capture the subjective experience of mental illness and its social consequences in a way that is sociologically grounded and informative, yet they never allow the science of psychiatric nosology, deviance, medicalization, and anomie to overshadow the humanity captured in the excerpted narratives. As impossible as it sounds, they allow the average well-adjusted, mentally stable person to experience vicariously mental illness from a perspective most of us will never truly understand."--Tony Brown, Vanderbilt University

"Sociology needs an approach that stands outside a psychological discourse about cause and cure. Books from the psychiatric or psychological disciplines tend to ignore or disparage patient accounts. . . . At last, a book that will not make you feel guilty for encroaching upon psychological property."--Noel Barker, DePaul University

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0195370457
• ISBN 13: 9780195370454
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Karp David A., Sisson Gretchen E.