Morals, Medicine and Change: Morality Brokers, Social Phobias, and French Psychiatry

• DOI: 10.1007/s11013-008-9092-4
• Publication Date: 2008-03-25T15:30:45Z
• Authors: Stephanie Lloyd
• Keywords: Cross-Cultural Comparison; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychiatry; Drug Industry; Neurotic Disorders; Psychometrics; Culture; History, 20th Century; Morals; United States; White People; 3. Good health; Diagnosis, Differential; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Phobic Disorders; Terminology as Topic; Humans; France; Biological Psychiatry

This paper will examine how French neurotics are being transformed into 'social phobics' and how the appearance of this group may be tied to new personal and social ideals. There are many people and factors that contribute to this changing definition of mental illness. Amongst these, I will focus on the role of three groups who are most vocally acting as morality brokers in the creation of these new subjects: psychiatrists, patients' groups and pharmaceutical companies.