Social science, psychiatry and psychosis

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511544064.003

3 - Social science, psychiatry and psychosis

from Part I - Theoretical and conceptual foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009

Edited by

Kwame McKenzie and

Craig Morgan: Affiliation:
Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry Health Service and Population Research Department Box 33, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London, UK
Craig Morgan: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
Kwame McKenzie: Affiliation:
University College London
Paul Fearon: Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin

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Summary

Introduction

The relationship between psychiatry and the social sciences has frequently been antagonistic. A major assumption underpinning psychiatry is that mental illnesses are at root biological and, as such, are primarily the remit of biomedical science. Within this conceptualisation, social science can at best assume a peripheral role, perhaps in helping to understand environmental influences on the presentation and course of the mental illnesses or in explaining patterns of service use (Kleinman, 1991). As for the key issue of aetiology, the biological sciences provide the framework and method for research; with regard to clinical practice, physical medicine offers the template. This is particularly true for schizophrenia and other psychoses, the disorders assumed to be most determined by biology (e.g., Crow, 2007). During the past two decades, the dominance of biological perspectives within psychiatry has increased, fuelled by rapid advances in genetics and the development of increasingly sophisticated techniques for studying the brain, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. However, somewhat ironically, these advances are generating evidence that social experiences over the life course can affect gene expression and neurodevelopment (e.g., Meaney, 2001; Teicher et al., 2003), and this is fuelling a renewed interest in the potential role of the social environment in the aetiology of schizophrenia and other psychoses (see Chapters 6–10).

The extent to which psychiatry has stood in direct opposition to the social sciences has fluctuated over time, and at any given point there have been proponents of closer collaboration with sociologists and anthropologists (e.g., Cooper, 1992).

Keywords

mental illness psychiatry schizophrenia social science social stress theory structural strain theory

Type: Chapter
Information: Society and Psychosis , pp. 25 - 40

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544064.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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3 - Social science, psychiatry and psychosis

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