Destigmatising Mental Illness?: Professional Politics and Public Education in Britain, 1870–1970 (Disability History) - Hardcover

Long, Vicky

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719085810 ISBN 13: 9780719085819

Verlag: Manchester University Press, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

This historical study of mental healthcare workers’ efforts to educate the public challenges the supposition that public prejudice generates the stigma of mental illness. Drawing on extensive archival research, this book argues that psychiatrists, nurses and social workers generated representations of mental illness which reflected their professional aspirations, economic motivations and perceptions of the public. Sharing in the stigma of their patients, healthcare workers sought to enhance the prestige of their professions by focussing upon the ability of psychiatry to effectively treat acute cases of mental disturbance. As a consequence, healthcare workers inadvertently reinforced the stigma attached to serious and enduring mental distress. This book makes a major contribution to the history of mental healthcare, and critiques current campaigns which seek to end mental health discrimination for failing to address the political, economic and social factors which fuel discrimination. It will appeal to academics, students, healthcare practitioners and service users.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vicky Long is Senior Lecturer in the History of Health and Healthcare at Glasgow Caledonian University

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Challenging the assumption that the stigma attached to mental illness stems from public ignorance and irresponsible media coverage, this book examines mental healthcare workers’ efforts to educate the public between 1870 and 1970. Drawing on extensive archival research, Vicky Long argues that the representations of mental illness conveyed by psychiatrists, nurses and social workers were by-products of professional aspirations, economic motivations and perceptions of the public, sensitive to shifting social and political currents. Sharing the stigma of their patients, many healthcare workers sought to enhance the prestige of psychiatry by emphasising its ability to cure acute and minor mental disorder. However, this strategy exacerbated the stigma attached to severe and enduring mental health problems. Indeed, healthcare workers occasionally fuelled the stereotype of the violent, chronically-ill male patient in an attempt to protect their own interests. Long contends that current campaigns, which conflate diverse experiences under the label mental illness, risk trivialising the difficulties facing people who live with serious and enduring mental disturbance, and fail to address the political, economic and social factors which fuel discrimination.

Destigmatising mental illness makes an important contribution to the history of mental healthcare and will interest students and historians of medicine as well as researchers and students working in mental health, medical humanities and disability studies. It will also be of value to service users, healthcare professionals and voluntary sector groups who want to know if past lessons can inform current efforts to challenge the discrimination experienced by people who suffer from mental distress.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Manchester University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0719085810
• ISBN 13: 9780719085819
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland