TREND REPORT SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW - SOCIOLOGY AND THE ORGANIZATION OF PSYCHIATRY

Whilst sociology has taken a consistent interest in psychiatry, theore tical and methodological approaches have varied. This paper summarises three versions of the sociology of psychiatry (social causationism, i nterpretive micro-sociology and structuralism). These are then contras ted with the more recent post-structuralist emphasis on deconstruction . The latter has emphasised a discursive shift in psychiatry since Vic torian times, from brain to mind, from coercion to voluntarism, and fr om hospital to community. The advantages and disadvantages of such an analysis are examined. It is concluded that this analysis has been ill uminating but that the older approaches it challenges still have merit s. The implications of attempting to reconcile these approaches to the analysis of contemporary psychiatry are discussed.