Issues of The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness - Literature review Example

Culture vs. mental health and illness is a topic that has caused a lot of controversy in the past with their relationship causing a lot of uproar and debate. It has been argued in the past that culture is a great determinant and the main reason why people get emotional problems. This is apart from the brain and the environment, which causes these problems as well. Culture goes an extra mile of dictating how such emotional problems are treated and whether the patients involved recover from such problems (Vedantam pg. 3-5). Culture as well affects the outcomes of diagnosis conducted by doctors as a procedure to determine the appropriate treatment. Just to mention one way in which culture and mental health and illness are connected, the article by Vedantum reiterates that records has it that patients with a disease called Schizophrenia that manifests itself with hallucinations and wrong thinking have been found to subside faster in victims from poor countries with strong extended family ties (Vedantam pg. 2). This is as opposed to the case with patients in the United States. People born in the USA with Mexican descent easily contracts disorders like depression and anxiety than those born in Mexico and are immigrants in the USA. It is therefore prudent to conclude that culture plays a role on the rate at which mental disorders occur with some cases even said to suffice due to the strength of the social networks. It has also been proven from studies that the impacts of the drugs used to treat the mental disorders as well have varied effects, which depends on ethnicity. Culture is a way in which decisions on what level to treat a disorder can be made (Vedantam pg. 7). When Teplin uses the phrase “street corner psychiatry,” she has the first meaning as the very open one. This statement describes the police who are the ones contacted by the citizens incase a person who is mentally ill is found. In such incidences, the police officers have the role transporting this individual to a nearby mental hospital; they can as well arrest such a person or decide to resolve the matter informally. In this entire scenario, we see the police officer as psychiatry on his own but doing his work in the street as opposed to the qualified psychiatrists. All the effort put in by the police is aimed at discharging their legal role of protection and ensuring the safety as well as the welfare of the public (Tepline pg. 5). Furthermore, they also act to discharge their mandate as protectors of the disabled citizens. The police though face a challenge, as their options concerning such an exercise are quite limited. Such limitations are created by the facts of fraught caused by the bureaucracies and difficulties in laws relating to psychiatry procedures. In addition, most of the psychiatry programs do not simply accept every other person most so the non-qualified personalities in the field. The police as part of the solution towards the mentally ill persons have the options of hospitalizing them or arresting them. This gives them the role of the street Psychiatry (Tepline pg. 3). In the exploration of Koerner and Carlat about the role of marketing and promotion strategies concerning mental illness and its perpetuation, they argue that marketing and promotion strategies are evil ways of portraying mental illness (Koerner pg. 3-5). The strategy of the pharmaceutical companies is that of exploiting the trust that the public have on medical doctors and in this case the Psychiatrists to their own profiteering advantage. Their main aim is not even to provide service to the patients but to raise their profit margins irrespective of the state of things (CARLAT pg. 244). The resultant strategies that these promotion strategies employ in the perpetuation of metal illness are for example that of deceit and heavy compensation. Such adverts or promotion strategies are a completely different definition of qualifications they give to metal illnesses. This is apart from the fact that SSRI have revolutionized. The companies as well make adverts for existing drugs relaying their new uses. As long as the companies wreck in their millions, the pharmaceutical corporations can go as afar as misleading the public by providing wrong information. Therefore, some of the companies go as afar as creation of videos, radio news release, and even the matter release (Koerner pg. 8). These adverts have been found to be much exaggerated and inappropriate. The major concerns raised by the authors of the two articles on the state of these adverts by the pharmaceutical companies are that they are compromising to the professional who are involved. The adverts most of the time give false information that are further detrimental to the mentally disabled. Above all such marketing and promotion strategies are selfish and are only for the gains of the respective corporations. The roles of advocacy groups cannot be underestimated since they act as the public eye in the social construction of ADD/ADHD and PTSD. They play the roles of information provision to the disadvantaged groups in the society. They are the defendants of the oppressed as they seek to provide redress for such personalities. The groups are in the position of providing a clear difference of given aspect in the society to the citizens. Such roles would be distinguishing false positives and false negatives when it comes to PTSDs out there. Advocacy groups are normally called upon to come up with solutions of a variety of mysterious issues that may be affecting the society. In this regards, they have the role of assessing validity, reliability, and feasibility of given departments such as those departments within the PTSD. Advocacy groups and bodies are meant to help correct the wrongs happening in the society and in this perspective they are able to make things be done in the right way. For example, they are able to pinpoint doctors when such doctors are providing inappropriate conclusions from their research findings. They also conduct protective roles to the less fortunate in the society. They do this through a provision of corrective actions such as their criticisms of the Spitzers diagnostic model due to its inappropriateness. In Vedantum, they are seen claiming of the underestimation of the effects of culture and mental health in society (Vedantam pg. 2). The roles of both structural and scientific racism in the legacy of inequality and contemporary mental health based on community and color cannot be underestimated. According to Kuthcins and Kirk in their article, they argue that racial issues have been a preoccupation in response to mental illness and diagnosis. This has caused a lot of controversy with some research showing some races to be more prone to mental effects than others have. The aspect has even been employed severally in the blackmailing of the European governments (KUTCHINS & KIRK pg. 212). Inequality has been witnessed based on ethnicity and color. For instance, in the 19th century, the groups considered more prone to becoming insane were the city dwellers from other countries or those from the rural areas of the USA. Armstrong argues that incest has been known to cause disorders like depression, drug addiction, and dissociation and to a large extent lead to large effects like feminism (Armstrong PG. 27). Taylor’s article explains that females are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses than their male counterparts are and these are routed from an analysis of a variety of perspectives. Among others is the role of the females in the society and the discrimination that the women face in the society from the men as well as the society. According to the article, women often face a complex distressing emotion called, “postpartum depression,” and this is also derived from their basic difference in experience and the meaning of motherhood (TAYLOR pg. 28-34). This disorder is quite severe in the women because it causes a lot of stress and suffering in such women. Despite the suffering experienced by the women, they find themselves trapped and unable to come out of this situation (Chernik pg. 244). This has caused guilt, shame, anxiety, fear and to an extreme depression that has in most cases resulted into mental illnesses. Labeling and hospitalization has been found to cause depersonalization. Rosenhan gives it the approach of trying to find the difference between sanity and insanity given the often non-compelling evidence. Within the article, he argues that one may appear normal yet insane. Due to the attitudes we exude towards others, depersonalization may crop in. Therefore, the attitudes coupled with the hierarchical structures of the hospitals, depersonalization is something we are not able to avoid. Deegan takes the labeling approach where we are able to find out that recovery is possible. He disagrees with those proclaiming that the fact that one is mentally ill, they should be neglected (Deegan pg. 360). Through the considerations provided by the above points of view, it is worth recognizing that labeling and hospitalization are never a hindrance to one’s satisfactory achievements. An individual does not deserve being alienated from the rest simply because they are mentally destabilized (Rosenhan pg. 254). Actually, they deserve to give love and receive love in return. They deserve being incorporated and involved in the roles expected of them in the society. This has been found to be part of the solutions to the challenges they face due to mental instabilities. Works Cited Armstrong, Louise. "Incest: A Journey to Hullabaloo." FEMINIST FOREMOTHERS 17.1-2 (1995): 25-31. Print. Chernik, Abra Fortune . "Sexism." The Body Politic 1.1 (1995): 243-246. Print. Deegan, Paricia E. Recovering our Sence of Value after Being Labeled Mentally Ill. Illinois: Spring Press Publishers, 1998. Print. CARLAT, DANIEL. "Dr. Drug Rep." The New York Times 11.25 (2007): 1-9. Print. KUTCHINS, HERB, and STUART A KIRK. "DSM: The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders." Making Us Crazy 1.1 (1999): 201-237. Print. Koerner, Brendan I. "Disorders Made to Order Pharmaceutical companies have come up with a new strategy to market their drugs: First go out and find a new mental illness, then push the pills to cure it.” Mother Jones 1.15742 (2002): 1-11. Print. Rosenhan, D.L. "On Being Sane in Insane Places." Science AAAS 179.4070 (1973): 250-258. Print. TAYLOR, VERTA. "SELF-LABELING AND WOMENS MENTAL HEALTH: POSTPARTUM ILLNESS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF MOTHERHOOD." Taylor & Francis Group 28.1 (1995): 23-47. Print. Tepline, Linda A. "Keeping the Peace: Police Discretion and Mentally Ill Persons." National Institute of Justice Journal 1.1 (2000): 1-8. Print. Vedantam, Shankar. "A Political Debate On Stress Disorder." The Washington Post 1.1 (2005): 1-4. Print. Vedantam, Shankar. "Patients Diversity Is Often Discounted Alternatives to Mainstream Medical Treatment Call for Recognizing Ethnic, Social Differences." The Washington Post 1.1 (2005): 1-8. Print. Read More