The Sociology of Mental Illness Theory 2022

Running head: THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS
THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Objective and Subjective measurement of mental health..........................................................2
Social Realism and Social Construction with regard to mental illness......................................4
Labelling Theory and psychiatric professions...........................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS2
Introduction.
Regarding mental health and its impact on people, there have been a number of
conflicting opinions and theories over time. There has also been debates regarding whether or
not mental illness patient are physically sick. While most physical ailments can be objectively
justified as disorders of the body’s various systems, it would not be the case with mental
health disorders like anxiety, depression and stress to more hard - core ailments like Bipolar
and Borderline personality disorders to suicidal and self - harming tendencies as individual
symptoms triggered by the aforementioned disorders. The current assignment looks at three
different themes pertaining mental health and its social perception. Firstly, it analyses
whether or not mental health disorders can be classified as subjective or objective
individually, following which it explains the sociological views and social constructions with
respect to mental health. Lastly, it looks at labelling theory as a potent social theory within
whose domains, social perceptions of mental health disorders will be evaluated.
Objective and Subjective measurement of mental health.
The bio – medical model is a medical diagnosis model that has been and continues to
be used as the primary model for diagnosing human diseases. The National Research Council
(NRC) defines the bio – medical model as a ‘surrogate’ (NRC 1998) for the human biological
system and explains that it can be used to differentiate, observe and analyse the normal and
abnormal human body functions, while also providing a basis for therapeutic and clinical
interventions in different diseases. When it comes to the diagnosis and analysis of mental
illness, there are certain caveats associated with the bio – medical model. Primarily, the bio –
medical model looks at human or non - human models of various bodily systems and specific
anomalies that can occur within them to gain a more objective understanding of diseases.
However, in the mental health context, there is a mostly unitary approach to looking at