The Politics of Madness

The Author: Hope Landrine is an associate professor of Psychology at California State University at San Bernardino.

"'The Politics of Madness' is the 1990' s contribution to broadening the controversy stimulated by Phyllis Chesler's (1972) 'Women and Madness'. Hope Landrine combines social and clinical psychology's theories and research to carefully document and demonstrate how gender, class, race and ethnicity win one a psychiatric diagnosis. Surely this is critical reading for anyone concerned with the mental health of women, ethnic minorities and the poor." (Lenore Walker)
"In the very title of this book, we are introduced to its central thesis and continuing theme - madness, like all other social phenomena in modern society, cannot be understood outside the context of politics, i.e., of power relations. The author takes the reader on a brilliant journey through prior efforts to understand the relationships between mental illness/health and variables such as ethnicity, social class, and gender, arguing convincingly for her own theory. Madness, she proposes, is a process of social order, and our psychopathologies are the well learned behaviors and cognitions of particular low-power status groups fulfilling their social roles. The book presents data in support of this general proposition from investigations carried out by the author, her colleagues and students, and from other studies. The impact is stunning, and the questions raised are here to stay: Who defines normality and madness? Who do we label as mad? What are the consequences for individuals and society? What is the role of psychology? The issues raised are haunting, the writing is incisive, and the book is a must for all of us who take our profession and scholarship seriously and who want to understand the interdependence of science and other social institutions." (Bernice Lott)