Review

Still good, second time

A SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS (2nd edition)
David Pilgrim and Anne Rogers
Open University Press, 1999, £16.99

The first edition of this book is already recommended reading for nursing students in many areas and although curricula are set to change their format in line with information-based learning, it will continue to be a useful, all round tool for students of mental health, and anyone interested in related topics.

The authors use a wide range of social theories and methodology to form the basic structure of the book, which remains a fairly definitive text on key issues such as gender, race and age. The changing political, social and professional climate, and the frameworks within which we practise are analysed as part of this basic groundwork, and related closely to implications for both patients and practice.

Discussion of the patient within the social context of the family emerges as the text’s main focus of evaluation, as the authors examine the way forward for the profession. A very useful book to have around.