defining mental illness
What is Mental Illness? Interpretations and Perspectives
Created by Charmaine C. Williams Ph.D.
Associate Dean, Academic
Associate Professor
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
© 2013, 2014
“What is Mental Illness” is a wonderfully clear overview on the various ways “mental illness” is perceived and defined – depending on the perspective you have and the culture that surrounds that perspective. The presentation was created by Professor Charmaine Williams from the University of Toronto as part of her online course “Social Contexts of Mental Health and Mental Illness”, originally delivered to over 42,000 students from 90 countries around the world, during 2013 on Coursera.org. We thank Professor Williams for sharing this with you – FAMILY MEMBERS! – who will often find the various overlapping and contradictory perspectives and definitions frustrating to navigate. This presentation (watch it on Youtube with audio commentary) might help you to understand that a simple definition, is not so simple. Hopefully, it will help you come to terms with your own definition.
And if you would like to read the powerpoint slides on their own – here is a link to a PDF of the presentation only, without audio commentary:
_What is mental illness__ C. Williams PhD
