At a time of huge pressures on mental health services, this highly topical, broad-ranging and thought-provoking analysis of the mental health crisis examines the current challenges in mental health service delivery and access using a range of perspectives (political, economic, and cultural, organisational issues). It then puts forward a number of alternatives, reviewing both current and alternative initiatives, and exploring what is needed for a mentally healthy society.

From events in our everyday life to those which stride the international stage, we have come to view the world in increasingly psychological terms. In spite of this, beyond the wants, desires and motivations of the characters who form the centrepiece of these explanatory dramas, the discipline which constitutes the driving force behind the analyses has been largely overlooked. In a series of essays, covering issues from mental health to political governance and war, this book reflects on the nature of psychology as an intellectual endeavour, questions its relationship to the systems of power...