1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781245703321

Autore

Dowbiggin Ian Robert <1952->

Titolo

The quest for mental health : a tale of science, medicine, scandal, sorrow, and mass society / / Ian Dowbiggin [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2011

ISBN

1-139-08854-8

1-107-21866-7

1-283-19326-4

9786613193261

1-139-09226-X

0-511-99341-2

1-139-09175-1

1-139-08995-1

1-139-09277-4

1-139-09085-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 248 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge essential histories

Disciplina

362.196/89

Soggetti

Mental health

Personality

Emotions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. A new egalitarianism; 3. Bricks and mortar humanity; 4. Mental hygiene; 5. A bottomless pit; 6. Emotional welfare.

Sommario/riassunto

This is the story of one of the most far-reaching human endeavors in history: the quest for mental well-being. From its origins in the eighteenth century to its wide scope in the early twenty-first, this search for emotional health and welfare has cost billions. In the name of mental health, millions around the world have been tranquilized, institutionalized, psycho-analyzed, sterilized, lobotomized and even euthanized. Yet at the dawn of the new millennium, reported rates of depression and anxiety are unprecedentedly high. Drawing on years of



field research, Ian Dowbiggin argues that if the quest for emotional well-being has reached a crisis point in the twenty-first century, it is because mass society is enveloped by cultures of therapism and consumerism, which increasingly advocate bureaucratic and managerial approaches to health and welfare.