Enrolments for 2022 have closed.
Mind,"Madness" and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Mental Illness
Undergraduate | LTU-SOC3001 | 2022
Course information for 2022 intake View information for 2024 course intake
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 12 weeks
HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Mind,"Madness" and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Mental Illness
About this subject
- Apply sociological concepts to understanding and analysing mental health and illness.
- Explain and critique key concepts and theories in the sociology of mental health and illness.
- Summarise research and arguments on a specific topic in the sociology of mental health and illness at the appropriate level.
- Demonstrate awareness of lived experience of mental ill-health and family care-giving.
- • The expanding terrain of mental disorder
- • Deinstitutionalisation and community care
- • Mental health policy reform and human rights
- • Inequalities in mental illness
- • The depression “epidemic”
- • Family caregiving
- • Subjective experiences of mental illness
The apparent rise in mental illness is a significant contemporary problem. In Australia, public attention has focused on the epidemic of anxiety and depressive disorders; high rates of suicide among males in rural areas; the mental health of Indigenous people, refugees, and youth; and the effects of illicit drug-use, especially ice. Can we claim that people are more distressed today, than in times past? If so, is this linked to particular changes in our social and material conditions, or is it a consequence of how we define and respond to mental illness and emotional suffering? This subject provides an introduction to sociological perspectives on mental illness. Topics include social responses to mental illness (asylum building, deinstitutionalisation and community care); the growth of psychiatry and other mental health professions; structural inequalities in mental health related to class, gender, ethnicity; the micro-politics of service provision; the rise of therapy culture; and subjective experiences of mental illness.
- Research assignment - 1,200-words (30%)
- Essay - 2,000-words Essay topics related to key social "problems". (50%)
- Online quizzes - equivalent 800-words Multiple-choice questions on weekly required readings (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 18
Entry requirements
Others
Prerequisites: 30 credit points of Level 2 subjects
Past La Trobe University students who have previously completed SOC2MIN Mind,"Madness" and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Mental Illness are ineligible to enrol in this subject
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
UndergraduateLAT-TEC-DEG
UndergraduateLAT-BUS-DEG
UndergraduateLAT-ART-DEG
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