This handbook addresses a wide range of contentious issues in mental health and mental disorder.

The SAGE Handbook of Mental Health and Illness is a landmark volume, which integrates the conceptual, empirical and evidence-based threads of mental health as an area of study, research and practice. It approaches mental health from two perspectives - firstly as a positive state of well-being and personal and social functioning and secondly as psychological difference or abnormality in its social context.

Unique features include:

- a broad and inclusive view of the field, providing depth and breadth for the reader

- a team of international, multi-disciplinary editors and contributors, and

- discussion of the many of the unresolved debates in the field about constructs and causes.

The Handbook will be an invaluable resource for postgraduate students, academics and researchers studying mental health in disciplines such as psychiatry, clinical psychology, social work, occupational therapy, nursing and sociology.

PART ONE: MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL DISORDER IN SOCIAL CONTEXT
Editors′ Introduction
The Limits to Psychiatric and Behavioural Genetics - Angus Clarke
The Challenge of Measurement of Mental Disorder in Community Surveys - Jerome C Wakefield and Mark F Schmitz
Mental Health, Positive Psychology and the Sociology of the Self - Benedikt Rogge
Sociological Aspects of the Emotions - Gillian Bendelow
Ethnicity, Race and Mental Disorder in the UK - James Nazroo and Karen Iley
Gender Matters: Differences in Depression between Women and Men - Jane M Ussher
The Diagnosis of Depression in an International Context - Renata Kokanovic
Stressors and Experienced Stress - Susan Roxburgh
Religious Beliefs and Mental Health - Scott Schieman
Applications and Extensions of the Stress Process Model
Children, Culture and Mental Illness - Brea Perry and Bernice A Pescosolido
Public Knowledge and Stigma toward Childhood Problems
Stigma and Mental Disorder - Graham Scambler
Medicalization and Mental Health - Sigrun Olafsdottir
The Critique of Medical Expansion and a Consideration of How Markets, National States, and Citizens Matter
Danger and Diagnosed Mental Disorder - David Pilgrim and Anne Rogers
PART TWO: CLINICAL AND POLICY TOPICS
Editors′ Introduction
Biological Explanations for and Responses to Madness - Philip Thomas
The Psychology of Psychosis - Richard Bentall
Sociological Aspects of Personality Disorder - Nick Manning
Sociological Aspects of Substance Misuse - Michael Bloor and Alison Munro
Sociological Aspects of Psychotropic Medication - David Pilgrim, Anne Rogers and Jonathan Gabe
Common Mental Health Problems - Carolyn Chew-Graham
Primary Care and Health Inequalities in the UK
Promoting Mental Health - Helen Herrman
Institutionalization and De-Institutionalization - Andrew Scull
Action for Change in the UK - Peter Campbell and Diana Rose
Thirty Years of the User/Survivor Movement
Recovery in Mental Illness - Ann McCranie
The Roots, Meanings and Implementations of a ′New′ Services Movement
Mental Health Problems, Social Exclusion and Social Inclusion - Jenny Secker
A UK Perspective
Social Network Influence in Mental Health and Illness, Service Use and Settings, and Treatment Outcomes - Bernice A Pescosolido