Principles of Social Psychiatry - 2nd Edition by Craig Morgan & Dinesh Bhugra (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Social psychiatry is concerned with the effects of the social environment on the mental health of the individual, and with the effects of the person with a mental disorder on his/her social environment. The field encompasses social interventions, prevention and the promotion of mental health. This new edition of Principles of Social Psychiatry provides a broad overview of current thinking in this expanding field and will be a source of ideas both in research and for the management of mental disorder. It opens by putting social psychiatry in perspective, within both psychiatry and the social sciences. From the patient's perspective, the outermost influence is the culture in which they live, followed by their neighbourhoods, workmates, and friends and family. The next section considers how we conceptualize the social world, from families through cultural identify and ethnicity to the wider social environment.

The book reviews the social determinants and consequences of the major mental disorders before considering interventions and service delivery at various levels to mitigate these. It closes with a review of the social impact of mental illness around the world and a thoughtful essay by the editors on the current state of social psychiatry and where it is heading.

From the Back Cover

Social psychiatry is concerned with the effects of the social environment on the mental health of the individual, and with the effects of the person with a mental disorder on his/her social environment. The field encompasses social interventions, prevention and the promotion of mental health. This new edition of Principles of Social Psychiatry provides a broad overview of current thinking in this expanding field and will be a source of ideas both for research and for the management of mental disorder. It opens by putting social psychiatry in perspective, within both psychiatry and the social sciences. From the patient's perspective, the outermost influence is the culture in which they live, followed by their neighbourhoods, workmates, and friends and family. The next section considers how we conceptualize the social world, from families through cultural identity and ethnicity to the wider social environment.

The book reviews the social determinants and consequences of the major mental disorders before considering interventions and service delivery at various levels to mitigate these. It closes with a review of the social impact of mental illness around the world and a thoughtful essay by the editors on the current state of social psychiatry and where it is heading.

• Completely re-written and updated; includes new topics such as impact of globalisation, disasters and mass movements of people, cyber networking
• Increased emphasis on social causation, social outcomes and research
• A welcome addition to a sparse literature on the social origins of mental disorders, written by leaders in the field

Review Quotes

"This should be of interest not only to those in the mental health professions who are committed to the practice and investigation of social psychiatry but to all who are engaged in the mental health system irrespective of their theoretical persuasions." (Transcultural Psychiatry, July 2011)

"Since it is claimed that depression is the fourth most common cause of health-related disability, there is a perceived need for effective psychological interventions that can be delivered within the community on a large scale. Low-cost ways of reducing the financial and human burden of common mental disorders are thoroughly explored in this book."(International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2011)

"The chapter by Dinesh Bhugra and Susham Gupta on culture and its influence on diagnosis and management could be a useful free-standing training manual for mental health professionals working in a cross-cultural or multicultural setting" (International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2011)

About the Author

Editors

CRAIG MORGAN and DINESH BHUGRA
NIH Biomedical Research Centre and Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

Praise for the first edition
"As an introduction to the field, there is nothing to better it. The contributions are scholarly, lucid and extremely well referenced. This is a book that I will recommend widely as an up to date synopsis of a complex and fascinating field of psychiatry." INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF PSYCHIATRY