Mental Health and Social Space

Hester Parr is Reader in Human Geography at the University of Dundee. She has worked on questions of mental health for over ten years, publishing in a range of journals, including Society and Space, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Area, Health and Place and Social and Cultural Geography.

"Hester Parr's book delivers a welcome and unusually close-up engagement with the practiced geographies of mental health. In particular it seeks to extend our grasp of how individuals with mental health problems feel; how they relate to community, citizenship and how they contribute to the constitution of their social spaces". (Area Book Reviews, 2010)"Hester Parr's book delivers a welcome and unusually close-up engagement with the practiced geographies of mental health." (Area, December 2010)  "This inspiring book offers a highly original account of the social spaces created and inhabited by people with mental health problems. Hester Parr paints a vivid picture, which foregrounds hopeful possibilities for empowerment and integration. It will be invaluable to anyone seeking to understand mental (ill) health in the twenty-first century."Liz Bondi, University of Edinburgh"Parr’s efforts to advance a 'cautious optimism”'about the lived social geographies of people with mental health problems, based on rich empirical material and thoughtful conceptual articulation, make this an essential read for anyone interested in the changing social geographies of mental health. The book also has considerable relevance for broader debates about social inclusion and active citizenship in contemporary Western societies."Robert Wilton, McMaster University“Parr has … redefine[ed] ‘the mental patient’, a crucial undertaking if social citizenship for people with mental illness is to become an enduring reality.” Metapsychology“This book could appeal to psychologists who enjoy relevant work in other disciplines, who find ideas of people like Freud and Foucault interesting, and who value small case studies.” PsycCritiques

• List of figures. Series editors' preface.Preface and acknowledgements.1 Geographies of difference: understanding mental (ill) health and social space.2 Placing mental health: community, inclusion and citizenship.3 Cultural landscapes: rural communities and mental health.4 Therapeutic natures? urban gardening, citizenship and social inclusion.5 Artistic spaces: the arts and mental health.6 Virtual communities: the Internet and on-line geographies of self-help.Conclusion: innovative geographies of mental health.References.Index.