Mirrors of Madness: Patrolling the Psychic Border / Edition 1

by Bruce Luske

Overview

Mirrors of Madness depicts the social-psychological processes and institutional consequences of psychiatric staffs experience of "closet insanity" (private worries about theirown social and psychological competence) and "reverse role modeling" (identification with their labeled psychotic clients' public behavior).

The book shows how, in attempting to ward off the threat involved in these processes, staffs tend to be more vigilant of their own behavior while redirecting their insecurities toward their clients in the form of derogatory humor in psychiatric evaluations. These and other activities are shown to be inhibiting factors in the rehabilitative function of social control agencies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202304236
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	12/31/1990
Series:	Social Problems & Social Issues
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1270L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Preface, Acknowledgments, 1. CONSTRUCTING PSYCHIATRIC REALITY, 2. BORDER CROSSING, 3. BORDER PATROL, 4. BORDER LINES, 5. BORDER DISPUTES, 6. BORDERLAND, REFERENCES AND WORKS OF RELATED INTEREST, INDEX

Editorial Reviews

Mirrors of Madness makes good reading. Luske vividly illustrates how fuzzy the border is between the normal and the insane by juxtaposing interviews with residents and staff and then challenging the reader to make a diagnosis… [T]his work provides a wise note of caution to the current enthusiasm for sociobiomedical research on mental disorder.” —Suzanne T. Ortega, Social Forces “Staff in a psychiatric hospital alter their own behaviors to protect against the danger of considering themselves mentally ill or providing grounds for others to so frame them. That is Bruce Luske’s thesis, and he provides persuasive evidence from his eighteen-month participant-observer study to support it. The phenomenon he dubs “reverse role modeling” is an important contribution to the Goffmanian literature on psychiatric institutions, as is Luske’s specification of the dualistic accounts staff use to confirm the otherness of patients.” —Barry Glassner, Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher

Luske (sociology, U. of Rochester) depicts the social-psychological processes and institutional consequences of psychiatric staff's experience of "closet insanity" (private worries about their own social and psychological competence) and "reverse role modeling" (identification with their labeled psychotic clients' public behavior). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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