ABSTRACT
In this chapter I wish to present and discuss some of the most infl uential interpretations of the current “epidemics” of mental disorders. I put “epidemics” in quotation marks, because a key point of this book is that it is uncertain whether the rising number of people diagnosed represents a genuine growth in psychiatric problems or rather a pathologization of various ordinary human life problems. Have more people become ill because of modern society? Or have we always had these kinds of numbers of ill people among us, but are only now able to fi nd them because of scientifi c advances? Are the disorders fabricated by Big Pharma? I argue that such interpretations may be legitimate in certain cases, but that two others are more signifi cant: one that is concerned with the culturalhistorical “psychiatrization” of suffering, and another that puts emphasis on changed diagnostic practices. After reviewing these interpretations, I turn directly to the concept of pathologization and show how it comes in many forms today (for example as self-pathologization, but also as stigmatization), and I argue that “the pathologization of everything” is a huge problem for a number of reasons: it skews the resources available for treatment, it paradoxically leads to increased vulnerability of individuals, it routinely individualizes social problems (thereby leading to individualized “solutions”, such as pills or therapy) and it narrows our self-understanding. In order to inform the discussion about the reasons for the rising number of people diagnosed, we need to understand the nature of mental disorders and psychiatric pathologies. What are these if looked at from cultural psychological perspectives? This question is taken up in the next chapter.
