Carol S. Aneshensel • Jo C. Phelan • Alex Bierman
Editors

2013

Second Edition

Within American society, mental disorder is commonly understood as an attribute of the individual. This intuitive understanding re fl ects the experiential reality that it is individuals who are beset by feelings of fear and despair, confused by intrusive or jumbled thoughts, addicted to drugs, and so forth. In this regard, everyday thinking is consistent with contemporary psychiatry, which also individualizes pathology, increasingly in biological terms.