The apparent rise in mental illness is a significant contemporary problem. In Australia, public attention has focused on the epidemic of anxiety and depressive disorders; high rates of suicide among males in rural areas; the mental health of Indigenous people, refugees, and youth; and the effects of illicit drug-use, especially ice. Can we claim that people are more distressed today, than in times past? If so, is this linked to particular changes in our social and material conditions, or is it a consequence of how we define and respond to mental illness and emotional suffering? This subject provides an introduction to sociological perspectives on mental illness. Topics include social responses to mental illness (asylum building, deinstitutionalisation and community care); the growth of psychiatry and other mental health professions; structural inequalities in mental health related to class, gender, ethnicity; the micro-politics of service provision; the rise of therapy culture; and subjective experiences of mental illness.
