SOCIAL CONTROL DOCTRINES OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA.

Social control doctrines of mental disorders have influenced a generation of psychologists and have shaped attitudes and discussions about how to treat mentally ill. In light of the failure of deinstitutionalization as a public policy and the contemporary concern with the medical or biological bases of psychiatric disorders, this paper re-examines social control doctrines. Reviewing mid-nineteen century statistical accounts, the author challeges claims of social control theorists and shows that in recent years some former social control advocates and revisionists have “ recanted ” and critized their earlier use of the concept of social control, particulary the characterization of the asylum as a “ total institution ”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]