Implications of Changing Attitudes toward Mental Illness

Bissland, James H.; Munger, Richard L.

doi:10.1080/00224545.1985.9713532

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Historically, self-injury has followed the broader moral passage of mental illness: theologically viewed as sinful and evil during the Middle Ages (Bissland and Munger 1985), it was recast in contemporary times under the rubric of the disease model (Conrad and Schneider 1992). We examine the psychomedical portrayal of self-injury here and debunk it from a sociological perspective.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Demedicalization of Self-Injury

Adler

2007

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article offers a glimpse into the relatively hidden practice of self-injury: cutting, burning, branding, and bone breaking. Drawing on eighty in-depth interviews, Web site postings, e-mail communications, and Internet groups, we challenge the psychomedical depiction of this phenomenon and discuss ways that the contemporary sociological practice of self-injury challenges images of the population, etiology, practice, and social meanings associated with this behavior. We conclude by suggesting that self-injury, for some, is in the process of undergoing a moral passage from the realm of medicalized to voluntarily chosen deviant behavior in which participants' actions may be understood with a greater understanding of the sociological factors that contribute to the prevalence of these actions. L ong a subterranean topic, the deliberate, nonsuicidal destruction of one's own body tissue emerged from obscurity in the 1990s and began to spread dramatically. Self-injury has gone by several names, though self-harm and self-mutilation have been the other most common appellations. 1 While any language may suggest an implied judgment about the behavior and selfinjury certainly invokes a more favorable connotation than self-mutilation, we use the term self-injury since it was used by our respondents most frequently. 2 Although a range of behaviors may be considered self-injurious,

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Demedicalization of Self-Injury

Adler

2007

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Steggals (2015) used a cultural perspective to analyze self-injury as more of a practice than an illness and as a powerful cultural idiom of personal distress and social estrangement. Chandler (2012; Historically, self-injury has followed the broader moral passage of mental illness: viewed theologically as sinful and evil during the Middle Ages (Bissland and Munger 1985), self-injury was recast in contemporary times, falling under the rubric of the disease model (Conrad and Schneider 1992). We examine the psycho-medical portrayal of self-injury here and debunk it from a sociological perspective.…”

Section: The Social Transformation Of Self-injurymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Transformation of Self-Injury

Adler

2022

QSR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This research offers a description and analysis of the relatively hidden practice of self-injury: cutting, burning, branding, and bone breaking. Drawing on over 150 in-depth interviews and tens of thousands of website postings, e-mail communications, and Internet groups, we challenge the psycho-medical depiction of this phenomenon and discuss ways that the contemporary sociological practice of self-injury has evolved to challenge images of the population, etiology, practice, and social meanings associated with this behavior. We conclude by suggesting that self-injury, for some, is in the process of undergoing a moral passage from the realm of medicalized to voluntarily chosen deviant behavior in which participants’ actions may be understood with a greater understanding of the sociological factors that contribute to the prevalence of these actions.

show abstract

“…En la amplia literatura publicada sobre el tema, se aprecia un predominio de investigaciones cuantitativas, descriptivas y correlacionales en términos de variables sociodemográficas; [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] sin embargo, la mayor parte de ellas no aclara cuál es el marco teórico en que se fundamenta en relación con el constructo "actitud", su formación, estructura y modificación. Por otra parte, ningún estudio reportado incluye una aproximación a la relación entre las creencias, las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales, así como a cualesquiera otras variables intervinientes en esta relación.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Un modelo explicativo de la conducta hacia la enfermedad mental

García-Sílberman¹

2002

Salud pública Méx

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective. To evaluate a theoretical model designed to explain behaviors toward mental illness, considering some variables related to the construct. Material and Methods. A survey was conducted in 1996 on mental disorder beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The sample population was stratified by socioeconomic status, age, and gender. Study subjects were 800 individuals from Mexico City's general population. A data collection instrument was constructed and validated, consisting of 120 Likert-type items with five options each. Data were coded and analyzed with the software package SPSS. Internal consistency of the scales was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and construct validity with factorial analysis. Student's t test and ANOVA were used to compare the groups in the different strata. Results. The model allowed to confirm the predictive capacity of the causal chain connecting beliefs, attitudes, and intentions; nevertheless, other study variables did not contribute to explain it, and behavior was scarcely influenced by intentions, depending mainly on experimented necessity. Conclusions. Study findings constitute a basis to understand the attitudes of shame and fear usually related to mental illnesses, to plan efficient actions aimed at modifying them, and to design programs to promote mental health. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/ salud/index.html García-Sílberman S. Un modelo explicativo de la conducta hacia la enfermedad mental. Salud Publica Mex 2002;44:289-296. El texto completo en inglés de este artículo está disponible en: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html

show abstract

Implications of Changing Attitudes toward Mental Illness

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

The Demedicalization of Self-Injury

The Demedicalization of Self-Injury

The Social Transformation of Self-Injury

Un modelo explicativo de la conducta hacia la enfermedad mental

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About