Sociology of health and illness

This chapter will consider how sociology has influenced and contributed to the critical debates in the study of mental health and illness. A number of sociological perspectives will be explored and considered in relation to aspects of mental health, including work developed from social interactionist perspectives, the critique of medicalization and social constructionism. Sociology has also made a major contribution to our understanding of ethnicity and culture (Modood et al., 1997; Bulmer and Solomos, 1999) and ethnicity and mental health (Nazroo, 1997; Iley and Nazroo, 2001).