Mental Health, Social Control, and the Law

Undergraduate

considers the influence of societal norms, belief systems, and power structures on definitions of health, wellbeing, neurodiversity, substance use, and addictions as well as the pathologizing and policing of experiences. Applying contemporary perspectives and approaches, students learn how adversity—such as poverty, violence, abuse, systemic oppression—is shaped by policies and institutions that support, stigmatize, exclude, and criminalize groups in crisis. Discussions emphasize structural and social conditions as well as overlapping individual and group-level factors.