SOC 298 - Sociology of Mental Illness

Mental illness is commonly understood through a biomedical and/or psychological framework. In this course, we will apply a sociological imagination to the topic and interrogate the ways in which mental illness, often seen as among the most private of “personal troubles,” is also a “public issue.” In other words, we will examine social structural contributors to mental illness, as well as the social aspects of changing interpretations of and responses to mental illness. How do gender, class, race, and other factors play into how mental illness is perceived, treated, and experienced? Are anxiety, depression, and other diagnoses really disorders situated purely in the individual? We will use personal narratives, news stories, and films, in addition to scholarly readings, to explore these and other questions.

Credits 1