{"title":"The 'social' in psychiatry and mental health: quantification, mental illness and society in international scientific networks (1920s-1950s).","authors":"Tiago Pires Marques","doi":"10.1177/0957154X231210924","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The post-World War II international mental health movement placed significant emphasis on the concept of the 'social environment', a true paradigm shift in thinking about the causes of mental illness. Rather than focusing on individual risk factors, experts and policy-makers began to consider the interplay between social context and mental health and illness. Also, during this period, quantification gained prominence within the expanding field of Western psychiatry. Eventually, the concept of the 'social' became fragmented into quantifiable social determinants that could be correlated with mental illness and subjected to systematic neutralization. This trajectory paved the way for the prevailing biomedical psychiatric epidemiology. This broader inquiry challenges us to redefine our understanding of the 'social' in the context of mental health research and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":45965,"journal":{"name":"History of Psychiatry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"History of Psychiatry","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154X231210924","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/12/29 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The post-World War II international mental health movement placed significant emphasis on the concept of the 'social environment', a true paradigm shift in thinking about the causes of mental illness. Rather than focusing on individual risk factors, experts and policy-makers began to consider the interplay between social context and mental health and illness. Also, during this period, quantification gained prominence within the expanding field of Western psychiatry. Eventually, the concept of the 'social' became fragmented into quantifiable social determinants that could be correlated with mental illness and subjected to systematic neutralization. This trajectory paved the way for the prevailing biomedical psychiatric epidemiology. This broader inquiry challenges us to redefine our understanding of the 'social' in the context of mental health research and practice.
期刊介绍:
History of Psychiatry publishes research articles, analysis and information across the entire field of the history of mental illness and the forms of medicine, psychiatry, cultural response and social policy which have evolved to understand and treat it. It covers all periods of history up to the present day, and all nations and cultures.