The Politics of Mental Health and Illness: New Critical Perspectives

Cohen, Bruce M. Z.; Harbusch, Martin; Reichertz, Jo; Adams, Peter J.

This volume critically interrogates the dominant understanding of ‘addiction’ and ‘addicts’. It examines the proliferation of the addiction concept by psychiatry and other psy-professions, exploring the processes and underlying drivers of this form of medicalisation. Through discussions from leading scholars in the field on gambling, smoking, opioids, and drug use, as well as the passionate engagement with social media, sport, sex, pornography, opioids, and psychedelics, the collection argues that addiction is better understood as a sociological rather than psychiatric phenomenon. It contends that the discourse of addiction is fundamentally political in nature, rather than purely medical. In doing so, this timely collection fills a significant gap in academic knowledge. It will be of strong interest to scholars and students of mental health and addiction, as well as to critical practitioners working in these areas.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2026-01-03

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783032063120

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-06313-7

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 356