ABSTRACT
The illness myth accounts for why some people disturb others or fail to resolve their own problems. The myth mystifies by attributing these essentially social processes to natural causes (i.e. a person’s ‘illness’). The myth is sustained by claims that mental illness is ‘just like any other illness’, that it is ‘ordinary distress’, or that is an impairment/disability. The actual effect of these claims is to conceal the role of personal agency and social appraisals in generating and maintaining woeful states. The grounds for abolishing the concept of mental illness are framed within a deterministic theory of the acquisition of agency, in which ‘free will’ is viewed as a useful myth that serves to organise social relations. This theoretical position is used to throw light on the role of agency in the presentation of woes and how agency can be understood in the process of regaining self-control during therapy. Abolition of the concept of mental illness does not carry the implication that people should (in general) be made to feel more or less responsible for resolving their own woes. Social policies that stress individual responsibility are discussed, as well as how the position outlined above can inform the provision of future well-being services.
