In Mental Health User Narratives, sociologist Bruce Cohen argues that the real experts on 'mental illness' - namely, service users - continue to be marginalised and silenced by health professionals. This book, now in paperback, attempts to redress that issue. Through extensive research with users in the UK, the author details user 'narratives' (or stories) which give insight into areas such as spiritualism, self-coping, self-recovery, alternative treatments, positive effects of illness, and future life paths. The research demonstrates a need to widen the therapeutic mind to include the...

This book offers a comprehensive Marxist critique of the business of mental health, demonstrating how the prerogatives of neoliberal capitalism for productive, self-governing citizens have allowed the discourse on mental illness to expand beyond the psychiatric institution into many previously untouched areas of public and private life including the home, school and the workplace. Through historical and contemporary analysis of psy-professional knowledge-claims and practices, Bruce Cohen shows how the extension of psychiatric authority can only be fully comprehended through the systematic...