Development of the Sociology of Mental Disorders: An Overview

In the introduction the social character of mental disorders is discussed. In the second part the contribution of individual authors and their works to the development of sociology of mental disorders in European countries and the USA is described, with special emphasis on the sociogenesis of mental disorders. There follows an overview of the theories of Comte, Durkheim, Halbwachs, Meyer and Eliot, Goffman, Parsons, Foucault, as well as representatives of anti-psychiatry (Laing, Basaglia and Szasz) and Freudo-Marxists (Reich, Fromm etc.), to contemporary authors of relevant textbooks (Gallagher, Eaton, Cocherham etc.). The study of the sociology of mental disorders in Serbia is briefly sketched.