Joan Busfield is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex.

• 1. Introduction: Rethinking the sociology of mental health: Joan Busfield. 2. Reason, emotion and embodiment: is 'mental' health a contradiction in terms?: Simon J. Williams.3. Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder: Julie Mulvany.4. 'It's a small world': mental health policy under welfare capitalism since 1945: Mick Carpenter.5. Psychiatric diagnosis under conditions of uncertainty: personality disorder, science and professional legitimacy: Nick Manning.6. A phenomenology of fear: Merleau-Ponty and agoraphobic life-worlds: Joyce Davidson.7. Identifying delusional discourse: issues of rationality, reality and power: Derrol Palmer.8. Civil commitment due to mental illness and dangerousness: the union of law and psychiatry within a treatment-control system: Bernadette Dallaire, Michael McCubbin, Paul Morin and David Cohen.9. Rethinking professional prerogative: managed mental healthcare providers: Teresa L. Scheid.

Joan Busfield is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex.

• 1. Introduction: Rethinking the sociology of mental health: Joan Busfield. 2. Reason, emotion and embodiment: is 'mental' health a contradiction in terms?: Simon J. Williams.3. Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder: Julie Mulvany.4. 'It's a small world': mental health policy under welfare capitalism since 1945: Mick Carpenter.5. Psychiatric diagnosis under conditions of uncertainty: personality disorder, science and professional legitimacy: Nick Manning.6. A phenomenology of fear: Merleau-Ponty and agoraphobic life-worlds: Joyce Davidson.7. Identifying delusional discourse: issues of rationality, reality and power: Derrol Palmer.8. Civil commitment due to mental illness and dangerousness: the union of law and psychiatry within a treatment-control system: Bernadette Dallaire, Michael McCubbin, Paul Morin and David Cohen.9. Rethinking professional prerogative: managed mental healthcare providers: Teresa L. Scheid.

Joan Busfield is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex.

• 1. Introduction: Rethinking the sociology of mental health: Joan Busfield. 2. Reason, emotion and embodiment: is 'mental' health a contradiction in terms?: Simon J. Williams.3. Disability, impairment or illness? The relevance of the social model of disability to the study of mental disorder: Julie Mulvany.4. 'It's a small world': mental health policy under welfare capitalism since 1945: Mick Carpenter.5. Psychiatric diagnosis under conditions of uncertainty: personality disorder, science and professional legitimacy: Nick Manning.6. A phenomenology of fear: Merleau-Ponty and agoraphobic life-worlds: Joyce Davidson.7. Identifying delusional discourse: issues of rationality, reality and power: Derrol Palmer.8. Civil commitment due to mental illness and dangerousness: the union of law and psychiatry within a treatment-control system: Bernadette Dallaire, Michael McCubbin, Paul Morin and David Cohen.9. Rethinking professional prerogative: managed mental healthcare providers: Teresa L. Scheid.