'This weather always gets me down': A psychosocial perspective on mental illness

Health
Nicole Baur

Abstract

Since antiquity, attempts to conceptualise the aetiology of mental illness have included social constructionist, biomedical, and psychosocial theories. The change of these concepts over the centuries is reflected in therapeutic approaches as well as the location, layout and interior design of psychiatric institutions. This article focuses on the genealogy of one of these concepts - the proposed link between meteorological parameters, specifically air and sun, and mental illness. Based on detailed archival materials, including administrative records, medical notes and correspondence as well as oral histories, relating to the Devon County Mental Hospital near Exeter (UK), it traces this link over time within and beyond the medical community to the extent that it served as pretext for underlying social causes of the illness. In doing so, this article makes an empirical contribution to geographical perspectives on the construction of psychiatric institutions throughout history while also advancing such work in theoretical terms by drawing attention to the shifts in medical and lay conceptualisations of mental illness.

References

Feb 1, 1983·Journal of Abnormal Psychology·J BriereJ Spensley
Feb 11, 2000·Neurology·L J CookeW J Becker
Oct 20, 2001·Social History of Medicine : the Journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine·J Andrews
Sep 15, 1899·Science·H H Clayton
Oct 23, 2008·Environmental Health Perspectives·Alana HansenGraeme Tucker
May 23, 2012·Journal of Historical Sociology·Simon Carter
Dec 25, 2012·Bulletin of the History of Medicine·Charles E Rosenberg

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