Toward a just society: Lessons from observations on the primary prevention of psychopathology.

Abstract

Prevention efforts to reduce psychopathology use strategies similar to public health measures for disease prevention. However, an important distinction to be maintained is that many mental conditions are not discrete diseases," they are often learned patterns of socially deviant behavior or idiosyncratic thought that result from stress, powerlessness, and exploitation. Prevention efforts aimed at reducing psychopathology will often require social change and a redistribution of power. Efforts to change the power structure and to reduce social class inequalities are opposed by persons who accept (a) the belief that class differences are natural and even desirable from a social Darwinian perspective, and (b) the "Just World" belief that says that people deserve whatever happens to them. Prevention workers are more likely to accept the fatalistic view that people, only through their own political efforts, can improve the quality of life for most of humankind if they accept the fact that there is no "divine plan'" and that evolution has no goalThe field of primary prevention of psychopathology owes enormous intellectual and ideological debts to the field of public health. Both fields make proactive efforts with groups, often high-risk groups, to reduce the incidence rates of undesirable conditions. Both fields are less visible than the more glamorous and more publicized fields of individual treatment. But there is one problem in trying to follow public health strategy too closely in prevention efforts in psychopathology: There is an important difference in the nature of the conditions to be prevented.Public health has long been concerned with preventing specific diseases or pathological organic conditions, most of which can be defined and identified fairly precisely and objectively. The history of public health involves, to cite a few examples, efforts to prevent plague, rabies, and tuberculosis and, more recently, polio and smallpox, black lung, brown lung, asbestos damage, and lead and mercury poisoning. Today the field of public health is increasingly concerned with the contribution of life-styles to disease: For example, tobacco and alcohol use is associated with diseases like lung cancer and cirrhosis, and improper nutrition, excess stress, obesity, and lack of exercise are associated with coronary artery disease and stroke. Although the shift of attention to behavioral causes is a significant change in focus, one re- Opposition to Prevention Through Social ChangePsychiatrists Lamb and Zusman (1979), for example, sharply attacked the growing interest in social change ef-

Community feeling and social interest: Adlerian parallels, synergy and differences with the field of community psychology

“…Community psychology also contributes to the development of theoretical frameworks and new models for mental health policy and programme development. An important goal is to improve mental health care and outcomes for diverse populations through community-based approaches (Albee, 1986). From the outset, the field has been pragmatic in aim and tends to produce a blend of positivist/nomothetic and action research-based knowledge and praxis (Bess et al, 2002).…”

Psychology and the status quo.

“…As Caplan and Nelson (1973), Albee (1981Albee ( , 1986 and Sarason (L98la,198Ib,I982,L9g4b) (Hughes, 1986, p. 1g). Then, students r,rilI be in a better position to learn and apply elenents of liÈerary criticis¡n along the lines suggesÈed by Hughes (1986), and, eventually, !o read a texÈ always "as a constructed TEXTUÀL WORLD distinct f rom hhe EI¡IPIRICAL, WORLD,' IcapiÈals in origina). ]…”

Social Change: Toward an Informed and Critical Understanding of Social Justice and the Capabilities Approach in Community Psychology

“…Although not universally accepted and by no means considered a central concept by most community psychologists (Fondacaro & Weinberg, 2002), the past several decades have seen a growing awareness of and interest in issues of power (e.g., Martın-Baro, 1994;Riger, 1993;Van Uchelen, 2000) and oppression and liberation (e.g., Bond, Hill, Mulvey, & Terenzio, 2000;Mankowski & Maton, 2010;Martın-Baro, 1994;Montero, 2007;Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2005, 2010Watts & Serrano-Garcia, 2003), leading some community psychologists in North America to focus on (and use the term) social justice as a tool to create social change in their scholarly endeavors (e.g., Albee, 1986;Evans et al, 2014;Fox & Prilleltensky, 1997;Prilleltensky, 2001Prilleltensky, , 2012Prilleltensky & Nelson, 1997;Sloan, 2010). Examples of writings on social justice include Prilleltensky's focal articles where he suggests that community psychology needs to move toward social action and social justice (2001) and where he links wellness to social justice through providing some historical underpinnings and identifies subtypes of justice (2012).…”