This course is organized to acquaint you with the care a nation provides for mental disorders.  It is not a course in clinical psychology, nor a course in public health or social ethics.  It is a sociology course that examines the way psychiatrists perceive and respond to psychopathology, the way mental health services have evolved, and the way different populations are included and excluded from service delivery.  The sociological perspective encourages us to recognize that mental health is a cultural construction to define what behavior and thought are “normal.”   The perspective encourages us to think about the extent to which mental health services are sociopolitical in nature and maintain a cultural hegemony for the benefit of the privileged. 

As an intermediate-level sociology course, we will address in some depth a range of topics on mental health and disorder and the delivery mental health services in American society.  The course is based on thorough reading before coming to class, in-class discussion and lectures, and, on occasion, classroom debate of selected readings.  It is organized around the assumptions that mental health care must be viewed as a sociological problem, not necessarily as a social problem.  Whatever your long-range professional objective, this course will further develop your sensitivity to sociology and give you a closer look at selected strengths and weakness of mental health care in American society.  We examine the relationships between society and mental health policy, social organization and mental disorder, and patients and their caregivers.  Many amazing changes have occurred in the mental health field over the last five decades, including the way mental health is conceptualized.  This explosion of knowledge triggers new questions that exists alongside old, poorly answered questions.
 

REQUIRED TEXTS

Bayer, Ronald.  (1987). Homosexuality and American psychiatry.  Princeton University Press. 

Berger, Lisa, & Vuckovic, Alexander.  (1994).  Under observation: Life inside the McLean 
    Psychiatric Hospital.  Penguin. 

Cockerham, William.  (1996).  Sociology of mental disorder (4th edition).  Prentice Hall. 

Estoff, Sue.  (1981). Making it crazy: An ethnography of psychiatric clients in an American community. 
     University of California Press. 

Horwitz, Allan, & Scheid, Teresa.  (1999).  A handbook for the study of mental health.  Cambridge 
      University Press. 

Warren, Carol.  (1991). Madwives: Schizophrenic women in the 1950s.  Rutgers University Press. 
 

ADDITIONAL READINGS

There will be a number of articles on reserve in the library. The authors listed on the weekly readings lists identify which articles are assigned for each week.
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This could become a demanding course for some students in terms of the energy and time needed to meet your own expectations and to satisfy the course requirements.  The reading load is moderately heavy.  Students’ responsibilities are:
 

(1) to faithfully read assigned material beforehand and attend classes prepared to participate
(2) to take two examinations—one midterm and one final
(3) to submit two 2-3 page critical book reviews, and
(4) to develop a semester’s research paper

Exams.  One midterm examination and one final are scheduled.  The in-class midterm will cover all assigned materials to that point of the course and comprises 30% of the course grade.  The midterm exam consists of two parts:  6-10 short answer questions written to determine if how well you understand concepts and issues found in the readings and lectures; and 2 essays, which are evaluated for your ability to systematically use course materials as you analyze issues we have been addressing.  The final exam is identical in structure, covers the latter half of the course, and it too comprises 25% of the course grade.

Writing Assignments.  Everyone is expected to submit the first day discussed a critical review of the two of the four monographs -- Berger & Vuckovic’s Under observation, Estoff’s Making it crazy, Warren’s Madwives, and Bayer’s Homosexuality and American psychiatry.  You assignment is to integrate your own understanding of the issues (psychiatric hospitals, aftercare, gender, and psychiatric classification) with theoretical tools provided in course readings.  These assignments constitute 15% of the course grade.

Research Assignment.  One important objective of this course is to get you to exposed to the sociological and psychiatric literatures.  This assignment is also designed to provide you the freedom to select a topic which is of interest to you.  For many students interested in the sociology of mental health, hands-on research makes the process of studying mental disorder and mental health services much more intriguing.  You come away from the research with a deeper understanding of the topic and appreciat-ing the personal investment.  My expectation is for each of you to develop a very manageable, small-scale, hands-on research project.  Sometimes a student will collect original data (e.g., newspaper cartoons that emphasize mental disorder); other times a small group of students will work together on a project (e.g., observation of children’s psychiatric labeling).  This research assignment is a semester-long project.  Only very rarely can someone submit a quality paper by trying to complete the work in the last month of a semester.  Early in the semester you are expected to identify a research question worth your investment--one which is manageable as a semester project within one of your four courses.  The proposed research requires a number of invisible hours engaged in the background library research. To assure the project begins with enough time to complete it, you must consult with me outside of class time before October 7.  A one-page prospectus is due no later than October 19.  The final paper is due December 7.  Late papers will be penalized.  Guidelines and information will be discussed during the office visit.  The paper constitutes 30% of the course grade.