Sociological Perspectives and Psychiatric Perspectives

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Sociology

Document 1

Societal perspectives include understanding issues such as aggression, prejudice, group mannerism, as well as conformity. On the other hand, psychiatric perspectives include cognitive understanding as well as analytical models. A sociological perspective deals with understanding an illness in term of the interactions of the illness to the sick person. In contrast to the sociological perspectives, psychiatric perspective believes that mental illness is a disease that require to be treated. The purpose of psychiatric perspective, is therefore, to order, forecast, and to control the symptoms of mental illness. The bodies responsible for correcting dysfunctional attribute of a mentally ill person in the society include the medical facilities set aside to treat mental disorders. Consequently, to understand an illness sociologically, the functionality perspective states that the illness should be considered as a deviation that affects the normal functioning of a person in the society (Gilman, 2017).

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Therefore, being sick is not only a condition by also contains customary rights that are based on the social norms around it. Secondly, conflict perspective is a concept of the mental illness that creates some economic and political barriers in the society that leads to conflicts, inequalities as well as social divisions. The conflict perspective mainly emphasized on the inequalities of social groups which includes social, political, or material inequality (Subotsky, 2009). The process of medicalization of the deviation, is therefore, used which helps in changing poor behaviors into sick mannerisms. The de-medicalization process is thus carried out which helps in normalizing the sick behavior. Interactionist perspective, therefore, helps in studying social interactions and defining whether the behavior is poor or healthy.

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Additionally, labeling approach used in mental illness is mainly influenced by the manifestation of societal influence. Social interaction perspective is closely related to labelling approach. According to the psychiatric perspectives, mental illnesses are diseases, thus people go to health care facilities or mental facilities since they have a mental disorder. The psychiatric perspective holds three perspectives of ordering, predicting, as well as controlling or treating the mental disorder. During the ordering stage, the symptoms of the disease are grouped into different categories depending on the individual’s disease (Gilman, 2017). For instance, there are personality disorder, affective disorders and schizophrenia disorders. Grouping individuals into different categories helps in identifying all the symptoms which in return will help in diagnosing an illness (Fitzgerald, 1985).

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The psychiatric perspectives state that if the symptoms of the illness are different, so will the diagnoses of the illness. Consequently, if the diagnosis of the illness are different, then the treatment of the illness will also be different (Jacob, 2017). Therefore, persons with different diagnosis of the illness are automatically going to respond differently to the treatment administered to them. The control function of the psychiatric perspective states that if the symptoms of the illness are similar, so will the diagnosis thus the treatment will also be the same. In conclusion, there are major issues of contention between the societal perspectives and the psychiatric perspectives. S. Perspectives about mental health, illness, and recovery. Current opinion in psychiatry, 30(5), 334-338. Subotsky, F. The yellow Wallpaper (1892), Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

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