“while sociological critiques cast much valuable light on the social processes around mental illness, they have a fundamental methodological limitation. What is visible from the perspective of social sciences are social systems, their structures & functions.” Derek Bolton (1/8)

“The inevitable consequence of the social systemic approach, whether at macro or micro levels, is that dysfunction in the individual, individual distress or disability, is bound to be framed as a characteristic of, created by, group processes.” (2/8)

“The absence of a notion of individual dysfunction —the invisibility of the phenomena which the notion seeks to capture— underlies the charge that the social-systemic critiques of mental illness fail to its reality; fail to see, for example, unbearable psychotic anxiety...” (3/8)

“...hallucinatory & delusional persecution that lead people to kill themselves; or the despair & depression of an individual worn down by trauma or chronic stressors...” (4/8)

“The non-individualistic, social-systemic gaze — to be contrasted with the medical — cannot see this individual suffering, or if it does, re-focuses on the group processes involved.” (5/8)

“it is further complicated by assumptions abt the construction of meaning & hence of meaninglessness... All meaningful content, all interpretation, was taken to be constructed by social processes. From this point of view,... social science was [bound to be] the only player” (6/8)

“For this to change, it was necessary first, for psychological science to include [meaningful] content in its domain, and second, to extend the horizons of psychology to envisage mental content caused by nature as well as culture.” (7/8)

Derek Bolton, What is Mental Disorder? An Essay in Philosophy, Science, and Values. OUP. 2008 (8/8)