Sociology of Mental Health and Illness

David Pilgrim is Professor of Health and Social Policy, Department of Sociology,nbsp;Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool, UK. After trainingnbsp;and working as a clinical psychologist he completed a PhD examining psychotherapynbsp;in the organisational setting of the British NHS. He then went on thenbsp;complete a Master's in sociology. He has worked at the boundary between clinicalnbsp;psychology and medical sociology for the past twenty years and has produced overnbsp;60 articles in peer-reviewed journals, based upon his research into mental healthnbsp;policy and practice. His years working in the British NHS provided him withnbsp;extensive everyday experience of…  More the theoretical and policy aspects of mentalnbsp;health expressed in practical settings. One his books, A Sociology of Mental Healthnbsp;and Illness (3rd edition, Open University Press, 2005), co-authored with Annenbsp;Rogers, won the British Medical Association's medical book of the year award fornbsp;2006. Currently he is writing a book on critical realism and mental healthnbsp;(Routledge, 2014) and is co-editing (with John Hall) a book on the history ofnbsp;British clinical psychology for the British Psychological Society. This will commemoratenbsp;the fiftieth anniversary in 2015 of the establishment in the latter of thenbsp;Division of Clinical Psychology.  Less

After graduating in Social Sciences (Sociology and Social Policy) from the Polytechnic of Central London in 1984, I undertook an M.Sc in Sociology as Applied to Medicine at Bedford College, University of London. I then gained employment as a research officer in the Legal Department of National Mind, exploring the implementation of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act where I became interested in a broad range of mental health issues including civil commiment, coercion, drug treatments and user involvement. During that time I undertook a part-time Phd at the University of Nottingham exploring notions of profesional dominance applied to policing and psychiatry. Between 1985-90 I was a a…  More member and then Chair of a Community Health Council in South London. I worked for a while as a free lance and contract researcher for the National Youth Burea and undertook part-time tutoring at various London Universities and medical schools until I was appointed to a full time sociology lecturing post at the Roehampton Institute University in 1989. I taught medical sociology, research methods and underook research exploring users experiences of psychiatric services. In 1994 I moved to the North West and joined the University of Manchester, the School of Primary Care and the National Primary Care Research & Development Centre. In 2001 I was promoted to my present position as Professor of the Sociology of Health Care. I was elected an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences in 2009 and in 2010 was appointed an NIHR Senior Investigator.  Less