Rejecting a reductive, biomedical and individualistic diagnosis of contemporary problems of health and well-being, this book contends that many such problems are to be understood in the light of radical changes in social structures and institutions, extending to deep crises in our civilization as a whole. Rather than considering such conditions in isolation - both from one another and from broader contexts - this volume argues that health and well-being are not just located at the level of the individual body, the integral human person, or even collective social bodies; rather, they encompass the health of humanity as a whole and our relationship with Nature.

Contents: Introduction, Kieran Keohane and Anders Petersen; Part I Social Pathologies: Addressing the Question: The notion of social pathology: a case study of Narcissus in American society, Alain Ehrenberg; The social pathologies of contemporary civilization: meaning-giving experiences and pathological expectations concerning health and suffering, Arpad Szakolczai; Modernity as spiritual disorder: searching for a vocabulary of social pathologies in the work of Eric Voegelin, Bjÿrn Thomassen. Part II Social Pathologies: Contemporary Malaises: The value of houses in the libidinal economy: financialization as social pathogenesis, Kieran Keohane; Depression: resisting ultra-liberalism?, Bert van den Bergh; The pathologization of morality, Svend Brinkmann; The multiple self: a social pathology?, Annalisa Porfilio; Possible explanations for increasing antidepressant treatment in modern society, Margrethe Nielsen and Gunnar Scott Reinbacher. Part III Social Pathologies: Biopower, Subjectification and Civilization: Does society still matter? Mental health and illness and the social sciences in the 21st century, Pia Ringÿ; Evaluations as a process of disenfranchisement, Anders Petersen and Rasmus Willig; Schismogenesis, liminality and public health, Agnes Horvath; Index.