Some thoughts on “mental illness” in present days

Abstract

This paper reflects on medical psychiatric classifications and their
effects. It proposes that classifications have effects on classified people and their environment, which hinders intended integration possibilities, especially after the movements in the medical psychiatric field which occurred in the last decades. This takes place in a socio-historical moment in which individualization processes characterize society and progressively erode group or collective bonds that used to exist in traditional society because of an increased role of individual existence. This generates a major difficulty in the intended integration processes of people who suffer or have suffered psychical distress.