Mental Illness: A Sociological Analysis

As a member of society, one is expected to relate to others in a mutually understandable ways and be able to engage in the day-to-day obligations and roles. However, such expectations exceed the person’s physical as well as psychological capacities that may hinder them from presenting themselves conventionally and to act as they want and have to (GERMOV). Hence, society may see them as differing from norm and can be perceived as being mentally ill as illustrated by Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz in his influential book The Myth of Mental Illness (Perone, 2014). Moreover, from a sociological theorist perspective Talcott Parsons, illness is viewed as form of deviance and described illness from a sociological terms as failing in some way to fulfil

Nonetheless, mental illness can be defined in different ways according to different disciplines. From a biological or medical approach, mental illness is viewed as disease or physical defect from the brain or body while psychological approach regarded it as if it were a sickness or abnormality in the mind or psyche whereas sociological approach sees mental illness as if it were a breakdown in the face of overwhelming environmental demands. In other words, biological and psychological perspectives described the cause of mental illness as internal being within the physical body or in the person’s mind while sociological perspective attributes it to external factors being the environment or the individual’s social situation (Scheid and Brown, 2010). Sociological theory associated with mental health is anomie theory postulated by Emil Durkheim (Bessa, 2012).Durkheim argued that the rules and standards that define what is normal and what is pathological are necessary for the societal structure (Baltrušaitytė, 2003). Meanwhile, from a functionalist model of mental disorder, Parsons was concerned in how the different components of society function in order to maintain balance for the whole social system thus for him illness may be a threat to social cohesion, for the reason

Lund (2012) posits that poverty remains as one of the most pressing global challenges of our time and that mental illness and poverty act together in a vicious cycle that has an influence throughout the lifespan. The World Health Organization reports that mental illness occurs in individuals of all genders, ages, and backgrounds hence no group is invulnerable to mental disorders however the risk is higher among the poor, homeless, the unemployed, persons with low education (Kuruvilla and Jacob,