ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book takes a brief look at the history of critical work within the area, along with the recent 'retreat' from critical thinking and the dominance of conservative approaches, as well as the main arguments why such positions need to be challenged now more than ever. The book outlines 12 distinct theoretical perspectives on mental health, from labelling and Marxist theory to queer theory and mad studies. The book also examines the critical histories of psychiatry, medicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation, the politics of diagnosis, colonial and global psychiatry, and critical approaches to therapy. Through utilising a number of critical theories, the book problematises talk therapy as guilty of, among other things, individualising, de-politicising and pathologising our behaviour, emotions and responses within contemporary capitalist society.
