Contesting Psychiatry

Nick Crossley is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. His previous books include: Making Sense of Social Movements, The Politics of Subjectivity, Intersubjectivity, The Social Body and Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory.

Contesting Psychiatry is an important book. Social movement scholars (with some, especially feminist exceptions) have not given sufficient attention to this field, its critics or to the conceptions of self and normality/pathology that are arising from it. Contesting Psychiatry is a needed beginning. Joseph E David, University of Virginia... I found myself reading a really interesting book. Once Crossley starts telling the story, his enthusiasum shows, the language becomes more lively and the analysis more engaging. Jim Read MHT Digest

• 1. Introduction 2. The Mental Health Field 3. Power, Strain and Social Movement 4. Mental Hygiene and Mental Health Politics in the 1950s 5. Anti-Psychiatry and Civil Rights 6. Patients and Survivors 7. Panic, Backlash and Counter-Backlash 8. Power and Resistance