The problem of the social causes of psychological distress in classical and contemporary sociological studies

Abstract

In this paper, we present part of our ongoing research into the problem of the social causes of psychic suffering, focusing on how this issue is addressed in both classical and contemporary sociological studies. Among the classics, we highlight Durkheim’s study on the social causes of suicide, based on the degree to which the individual is integrated into society. Also relevant to this topic is Marx’s translation of Peuchet, in which the Marxist perspective likewise reduces suicide to social causes, albeit with a different explanatory principle. Without renouncing the notion of social causality, Simmel argues that life in the metropolis leads to an intensification of nervous tension and the depletion of individual energy. Mauss, for his part, presents a nuanced view of the causal relationship between emotions and society: for him, society does not cause a particular emotion, but demands that it be expressed in a manner consistent with social values, rules and contexts. Such classical approaches influence some of the contemporary approaches to the subject of mental health, which can be divided into normative and descriptive analyses. Normative analyses tend to explain the phenomenon of mental health on the basis of a causal reductionism, according to which the structure of society causes psychic suffering. Descriptive analyses, on the other hand, tend to draw on Mauss’s analysis, arguing that manifestations of mental health function as a language shaped by social context and values. We aim to demonstrate how classical discussions have expanded into contemporary analyses of the subject and to highlight the different perspectives currently in dispute.