Mental Health in America: A Reference Handbook

by Donna R. Kemp

Overview

This extensive overview charts the fluctuating course of mental health policy in the United States from colonial times to today.

Mental Health in America: A Reference Handbook examines the evolution of mental health policy in America from the almshouses of colonial times and the dawn of psychoanalysis in the early 1900s to the community mental health revolution in the 1960s and the insurance problems plaguing the field today.

Addressing such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, anxiety, dementia, bipolar disorder, and depression, this work explores the changing definitions and explanations of mental illness and provides detailed analyses of treatments and their effects, including electroshock therapy, lobotomy, and psychotropic drugs. Readers will meet such key players as Horace Mann, who called for the insane to be made wards of the state, and assemblywoman Helen Thomson, an involuntary-treatment advocate referred to by her opponents as "Nurse Ratchett."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781851097890
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/01/2007
Series:	Contemporary World Issues
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	15 Years

About the Author

Donna R. Kemp is professor of public administration and MPA Coordinator of the Department of Political Science at California State University, Chico, CA. Her published works include Biomedical Policy and Mental Health and Mental Health in the Workplace: An Employer's and Manager's Guide.

Editorial Reviews

highly recommended for all medical and sociology-related collections.” —Library Jourbanal

“Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers.” —Choice

“This work is recommended for public, high school, and undergraduate collections.” —ARBA

From the Publisher

Kemp (public administration, California State Univ., Chico; Mental Health in the Workplace: An Employer's and Manager's Guide) opens with an incisive history of America's approach to mental disorders since the 19th century, then gives a fascinating chronology of cultural approaches to mental illness since 10,000 B.C.E. In the nine subsequent chapters, she presents clear-cut definitions of disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's, schizophrenia) and treatments (e.g., electroshock therapy, psychotropic drugs), field-relevant biographies (e.g., of involuntary-treatment advocate Helen Thomson), legislative debates, and eye-opening statistics. She also broaches the difficult issues of managed care, deinstitutionalization, and criminal recidivism, citing specific examples and court cases. A 26-page resource list and a valuable glossary of terms round out the book. Carefully researched and rich with insight; highly recommended for all medical and sociology-related collections.

—Savannah Schroll Guz

Library Journal