Critical Perspectives on Mental Health

This text seeks to explore and evaluate the claims of what implications the critiques of these perspectives have for practice.

Using the British mental health services as a case study, the book critically reviews the various social, political and intellectual developments which have shaped psychiatric practice and the delivery of mental health services.

By evaluating the impact which new social and political movements of the 60s and 70s such as anti-racism, anti-psychiatry and radical feminism had on psychiatric thought, the authors argue that these movements led to challenges to the legitimacy of psychiatry.

Using theoretical frameworks borrowed from critical criminology, these competing critiques are evaluated and the problems which affect the practice of mental health care in the 21st century are considered.