Page No.195-202
Alankrita Singh Maurya
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Studies on mental illness have predominantly taken bio-medical perspective.
However, recent researches reveal the need for a more holistic approach. Besides
the biomedical factors, psychological and socio-cultural factors also play important
role in explaining mental illness. The present paper emphasizes the importance of
the psycho-social factors in understanding of mental health and illness. Highlighting
the importance of bio-psycho-social model towards understanding of mental illness,
the paper attempts to establish the relevance of Social representations theory in
attaining commonsense understanding of mental health and illness through a
qualitative study. The study revealed that the meanings and notions held by common
people of mental health and illness were more inclined towards psycho-social
explanations. In conclusion, the author suggests for an integration of the
commonsense knowledge with other approaches for designing of intervention
programmes for effective interventions.