Mental Illness and Social Processes

is a collection of previously published articles by well-known contributors, edited by Professor Scheff. Articles by social scientists and psychiatrists illustrate various facets of the 'societal approach' to mental illness, which Scheff defines as the study of the community's reaction to mental illness. The study of societal reactions challenges medical concepts of mental illness and seems to have a more immediate appeal to the experience of the social worker and the emotions of the public than to the psychiatrist.