Society and Psychosis

Psychiatry is in the process of rediscovering its roots. It seemed as if the long history of interest in the impact of society on the rates and course of serious mental illness had been forgotten, overtaken by the advances of neuroscience and genetics. However, as our knowledge of physiological and genetic processes improves it becomes increasingly clear that social conditions and experiences over the life course are crucial to achieving a full understanding. Old controversies are giving way to genuinely integrated models in which social, psychological and biological factors interact over time, culminating in the onset of psychosis. This book reviews these issues from an international perspective, laying the foundations for a new understanding of the psychotic disorders, with profound implications for health policy and clinical practice. It should be read by all members of the mental health team and those responsible for service organization and management.

• Provides a new integrated perspective on our understanding of serious mental illness • Includes detailed models linking social, biological and psychological factors • Describes the implications for both policy and practice

1. Introduction Craig Morgan, Kwame McKenzie and Paul Fearon; 2. Climate change in psychiatry: periodic fluctuations or terminal trend? Julian Leff; Part I. Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations: 3. Social science, psychiatry and psychosis Craig Morgan; 4. Conceptualising the social world Dana March, Craig Morgan, Michaeline Bresnahan and Ezra Susser; 5. Genes and the social environment Jennifer H. Barnett and Peter B. Jones; Part II. Social Factors and the Onset of Psychosis: 6. Society, place and space Jane Boydell and Kwame McKenzie; 7. Childhood adversity and psychosis Helen Fisher and Tom Craig; 8. Family environment and psychosis Pekka Tienari and Karl-Erik Wahlberg; 9. Adult adversity: do early environment and genetic risk create lasting vulnerabilities for adult social adversity in psychosis? Inez Myin-Germeys and Jim van Os; 10. Migration, ethnicity and psychosis Kwame McKenzie, Paul Fearon and Gerard Hutchinson; Part III. Social Factors and the Outcome of Psychosis: 11. Social factors as a basis for treatment Richard Warner; 12. Public attitudes, stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness Graham Thornicroft, Aliya Kassam and Michael King; 13. Outcomes elsewhere: course of psychosis in \'other cultures\' Kim Hopper; Part IV. Models and Conclusions: 14. Theories of cognition, emotion and the social world: missing links in psychosis Paul Bebbington, David Fowler, Philippa Garety, Daniel Freeman and Elizabeth Kuipers; 15. Society and psychosis: future directions and implications Craig Morgan, Kwame McKenzie and Paul Fearon.