Peter Morrall – författare

This introductory text provides nurses with the foundations of a sociological understanding of health issues which they should find of great help in thinking about their work and the role of their profession. It explains the key sociological theories and debates with humour and imagination in a way which will encourage an inquisitive and reflective approach on the part of any student who engages with the text.

This lively, introductory text provides students and health practitioners with the foundations of a sociological understanding of health issues. Written for anyone who is interested in health and disease in contemporary global society, this book engages the reader to act upon their occupational and moral responsibilities.It explains the key sociological theories and debates with humour and imagination in a way that will encourage an inquisitive and reflective approach on the part of any student who engages with the text. With individual chapters covering sociology, health, science, power, medicalisation, madness happiness, sex, violence and death, Sociology and Health is organized so that the student moves through sociological approaches and themes which constantly recur in the experience of healthcare. Students will find this a readable and controversial text which covers the ground they need to know in a thought-provoking way. Lecturers will find it a helpful text for generating discussion in tutorials and seminars. There are summaries at the end of each chapter, suggestions for further reading and ideas for the reader.

This lively, introductory text provides students and health practitioners with the foundations of a sociological understanding of health issues. Written for anyone who is interested in health and disease in contemporary global society, this book engages the reader to act upon their occupational and moral responsibilities.It explains the key sociological theories and debates with humour and imagination in a way that will encourage an inquisitive and reflective approach on the part of any student who engages with the text. With individual chapters covering sociology, health, science, power, medicalisation, madness happiness, sex, violence and death, Sociology and Health is organized so that the student moves through sociological approaches and themes which constantly recur in the experience of healthcare. Students will find this a readable and controversial text which covers the ground they need to know in a thought-provoking way. Lecturers will find it a helpful text for generating discussion in tutorials and seminars. There are summaries at the end of each chapter, suggestions for further reading and ideas for the reader.

This book focuses on the paradoxical effect of social crises on mental health. When crises occur, there's an upsurge of mental suffering due to an intensification of such social insanities as violence, inequality, and insecurity. Paradoxically, there are positive consequences due to acts of kindness, cooperation, and the ability to cope and hope.Two interconnected categories of social crises are covered in the book. These are as follows: contagions (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous outbreaks of plague and smallpox since medieval times, and the 1918 influenza pandemic); conflicts (including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and aspects of world war such as the Holocaust, the use of nuclear bombs in the Second World War, and the climate emergency). What is also explored in the book is whether there is an amplification of everyday difficulties whereby having a ‘mental health problem’ has become normalised. The idea of ‘mental-healthism’ is introduced to explain the cultural shift towards this apparent normalisation of ordinary psychological suffering.The book will be of interest to students, practitioners, and researchers from sociology, psychology, nursing, social work, and psychiatry, among others.

This book critiques the connection between Western society and madness, scrutinizing if and how societal insanity affects the cause, construction, and consequence of madness.Looking beyond the affected individual to their social, political, economic, ecological, and cultural context, this book examines whether society itself, and its institutions, divisions, practices, and values, is mad. That society’s insanity is relevant to the sanity and insanity of its citizens has been argued by Fromm in The Sane Society, but also by a host of sociologists, social thinkers, epidemiologists and biologists. This book builds on classic texts such as Foucault’s History of Madness, Scull’s Marxist-oriented works and more recent publications which have arisen from a range of socio-political and patient-orientated movements. Chapters in this book draw on biology, psychology, sociological and anthropological thinking that argues that where madness is concerned, society matters. Providing an extended case study of how the sociological imagination should operate in a contemporary setting, this book draws on genetics, neuroscience, cognitive science, radical psychology, and evolutionary psychology/psychiatry. It is an important read for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social policy, criminology, health, and mental health.

This book focuses on the paradoxical effect of social crises on mental health. When crises occur, there's an upsurge of mental suffering due to an intensification of such social insanities as violence, inequality, and insecurity. Paradoxically, there are positive consequences due to acts of kindness, cooperation, and the ability to cope and hope.Two interconnected categories of social crises are covered in the book. These are as follows: contagions (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous outbreaks of plague and smallpox since medieval times, and the 1918 influenza pandemic); conflicts (including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and aspects of world war such as the Holocaust, the use of nuclear bombs in the Second World War, and the climate emergency). What is also explored in the book is whether there is an amplification of everyday difficulties whereby having a ‘mental health problem’ has become normalised. The idea of ‘mental-healthism’ is introduced to explain the cultural shift towards this apparent normalisation of ordinary psychological suffering.The book will be of interest to students, practitioners, and researchers from sociology, psychology, nursing, social work, and psychiatry, among others.

This introductory text provides nurses with the foundations of a sociological understanding of health issues which they should find of great help in thinking about their work and the role of their profession. It explains the key sociological theories and debates with humour and imagination in a way which will encourage an inquisitive and reflective approach on the part of any student who engages with the text.

This book critiques the connection between Western society and madness, scrutinizing if and how societal insanity affects the cause, construction, and consequence of madness.Looking beyond the affected individual to their social, political, economic, ecological, and cultural context, this book examines whether society itself, and its institutions, divisions, practices, and values, is mad. That society’s insanity is relevant to the sanity and insanity of its citizens has been argued by Fromm in The Sane Society, but also by a host of sociologists, social thinkers, epidemiologists and biologists. This book builds on classic texts such as Foucault’s History of Madness, Scull’s Marxist-oriented works and more recent publications which have arisen from a range of socio-political and patient-orientated movements. Chapters in this book draw on biology, psychology, sociological and anthropological thinking that argues that where madness is concerned, society matters. Providing an extended case study of how the sociological imagination should operate in a contemporary setting, this book draws on genetics, neuroscience, cognitive science, radical psychology, and evolutionary psychology/psychiatry. It is an important read for students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social policy, criminology, health, and mental health.

This book is an introduction to the uncertainties and incongruities about madness. It is aimed at all of those who are curious about this subject whether out of general inquisitiveness or because it is part of a formal course of study.Using case studies of real people in order to explain, humanise, and bring to life the subject, Peter Morrall critically analyses how madness has been and is understood, or perhaps misunderstood. By contrasting past and present people who have been perceived as mad and/or perceive themselves as mad, Morrall presents core ideas about madness and critiques their would-be robustness in explaining the specific madness of the person in question, as well as their general relevance to madness overall.Unlike many of its contemporaries, the book does not adhere to a perspective,but rather remains skeptical about the ideas of all who profess to understandmadness, whether these emanate from sociology, psychology, psychotherapy,anthropology, ‘anti’ psychiatry, or the biological sciences of contemporary‘scientific-psychiatry’. This book will inform and stimulate the thinking of the reader, and challenge those with preconceived ideas about madness.

This book is an introduction to the uncertainties and incongruities about madness. It is aimed at all of those who are curious about this subject whether out of general inquisitiveness or because it is part of a formal course of study.Using case studies of real people in order to explain, humanise, and bring to life the subject, Peter Morrall critically analyses how madness has been and is understood, or perhaps misunderstood. By contrasting past and present people who have been perceived as mad and/or perceive themselves as mad, Morrall presents core ideas about madness and critiques their would-be robustness in explaining the specific madness of the person in question, as well as their general relevance to madness overall.Unlike many of its contemporaries, the book does not adhere to a perspective,but rather remains skeptical about the ideas of all who profess to understandmadness, whether these emanate from sociology, psychology, psychotherapy,anthropology, ‘anti’ psychiatry, or the biological sciences of contemporary‘scientific-psychiatry’. This book will inform and stimulate the thinking of the reader, and challenge those with preconceived ideas about madness.

Mental health nursing has always been susceptible to modification due to, for example, new treatments and changing demands by society. This timely book examines the current status of mental health nursing and the role that this discipline plays in the social control of the 'mad'.Controversially, the author recommends that mental health nursing should exploit its social control function by re-establishing its traditional allegiance to medical psychiatry. However, the author suggests also that a minority of mental health nurses may wish to become part of a radical force aimed at achieving genuine empowerment for the mentally disordered.

Murder is the most malevolent of acts by humans. Not only does the slaying of a man, woman or child destroy a life, but it ravages the lives of all those associated with the person who has been killed, and foments the collective angst of the community. But the mad who kill are placed in a different socio-legal category to that of ?normal' murderers. Those regarded as insane, either at the time of their improbity or after the event, are propelled into a distinct and discreditable stratum of deviancy. They are 'unreasonably' dangerous. These miscreants are construed as 'double-trouble' - mad and bad! Is there justifiable (if exaggerated) anxiety about dangerous mentally disordered people being 'loose' in the community? Is there a genuine need to protect both society at large and the mad? Does public concern about the homicidal tendencies of the mentally disordered warrant emphatic social intervention to protect both potential victims and perpetrators? What are the merits and consequences of post-liberal mental health policies and laws, introduced at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century in response to a declared failure of previous approaches to the care of mentally disordered people and the protection of the public? How have the psychiatric disciplines of medicine and nursing contributed to a period of unprecedented public alarm in the 1990s about the mentally disordered?

Mental health has become a global issue. Throughout both the developed and developing worlds, the treatment and care of the mentally disordered, and the need to improve the mental health of all citizens, has become a major political and professional concern. This text sets out to monitor and analyse what supra-national and national policies have been and are being implemented, and to indicate what general themes and contradictions exist in the delivery of these policies. The implications from this review are then applied to professional practice - in particular that of the psychiatric disciplines (psychiatry and mental health nursing).A series of case studies from across the world is presented. Each is written by a pre-eminent scholar in the field of mental health policy within a selected country. The case studies have been chosen on the basis of their geographical location to ensure that there is a spread of exemplars from across the world and/or because of a unique approach to managing the mentally disordered.