I: Introduction: Alternative Understandings of Mental Health. 1. The Sociology of Mental Health: Surveying the Field; C.S. Aneshensel, J.C. Phelan. 2. Mental Illness in a Multicultural Context; P. Agbayani-Siewert, et al. 3. Mental Illness as Psychiatric Disorder; M. Livingstone Bruce. 4. The Sociological Study of Mental Illness: A Critique and Synthesis of Four Perspectives; A.V. Horwitz. II: Observing Mental Health in the Community. 5. Issues in Mental Health Assessment; G.E. Switzer, et al. 6. Analysing Associations between Mental Health and Social Circumstances; J. Mirowsky. III: The Social Distribution of Mental Illness. 7. Overview of Descriptive Epidemiology of Mental Disorders; R.C. Kessler, S. Zhao. 8. Social Class; Y. Yu, D.R. Williams. 9. Race, Ethinicity and Culture in the Sociology of Mental Health; T.N. Brown, et al. 10. Mental Disorder in Late Life: Exploring the Influence of Stress and Socioeconomic Status; N. Krause. 11. Splitting the Difference: Gender, the Self, and Mental Health; S. Rosenfield. 12. Family Status and Mental Health; D. Umberson, K. Williams. 13. Work and Mental Health; M. Tausig. IV: Social Antecedents of Mental Illness. 14. Social Stress; B. Wheaton. 15. Social Integration and Support; R.J. Turner, J.B. Turner. 16. Social Stratification and Inequality; J.D. McLeod, J.M. Nonnemaker. 17. Self, Identity, Stress, and Mental Health; P.A. Thoits. 18. The Sense of Personal Control: Social-Cultural Causes and Emotional Consequences; C.E. Ross, J. Sastry. 19. The Stress Process Revisited: Reflections on Concepts and Their Interrelationships; L.I. Pearlin. 20. Social Transmission in Acute Somatoform Epidemics; W.W. Eaton. V: Social Consequences of Mental Illness. 21. The Social Dynamics of Responding to Mental Health Problems: Past, Present, and Future Challenges to Understanding Individuals' Use of Services; B.A. Pescosolido, et al. 22. Mental Health Services and Systems; M.F. Polgar, J.P. Morrissey. 23. Labeling and Stigma; B.G. Link, J.C. Phelan. 24. Impact of Mental Illness on the Family; W.R. Avison. VI: Institutional Contexts of Mental Illness. 25. Mental Hospitals and Deinstitutionalization; G.W. Dowdall. 26. Instituting Madness: The Evolution of a Federal Agency; S.A. Kirk. VII: Social Continuities. 27. Life Course Perspectives on Mental Health; L.K. George. 28. Mental Illness as a Career: Sociological Perspectives; C.S. Aneshensel. Index.

This handbook describes ways in which society shapes the mental health of its members, and shapes the lives of those who have been identified as mentally ill. The text explores the social conditions that lead to behaviors defined as mental illness, and the ways in which the concept of mental illness is socially constructed around those behaviors. The book also reviews research that examines socially conditioned responses to mental illness on the part of individuals and institutions, and ways in which these responses affect persons with mental illness. It evaluates where the field has been, identifies its current location and plots a course for the future.