The Origins of Unhappiness

by D.J. Smail

The normal interpretation of psychological distress - more usually labelled as "neurosis" or "mental illness" - is that it originates from within the individual. This book turns this theory on its head and examines what the author believes is the real cause of individual distress - the society we live in. Looking particularly at the workings of both visible and invisible social power and placing his theory in the context of the political backdrop of the 1980s, the author describes the psychological consequences of the interplay of political and personal power and goes on to analyze the ways in which clinical psychology and psychiatry in Britain fail to meet the needs of the people being treated.