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Actor networks, policy networks and personality disorder
Author(s) -
Manning Nick
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.00312
Subject(s) - legislation , personality , government (linguistics) , set (abstract data type) , mental health , process (computing) , psychology , psychiatry , personality development , political science , social psychology , law , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , programming language , operating system
In this paper two disparate areas of social science theory, actor‐network theory and policy networks, will be brought to bear on the problem of explaining the rapid development of an area of medical science and health policy in the UK. There has been a surge of interest in the treatment and management of personality disorder from within both the psychiatric profession and government ministries, and particularly those personality disorders deemed to be severe or dangerous. This has resulted in the development of a new psychiatric classification, the ‘dangerous and severe personality disorder’ (DSPD), and the funding and development of a new service to deal with it. Major new mental health legislation has been set in train to provide legal backing for the pre‐emptive detention of patients with such a diagnosis, despite widespread uncertainty over its status, reliability or predictive capability. In the process of presenting and analysing this development, actor‐network theory and policy networks will themselves be reviewed and compared, and common and incompatible elements, foci and mechanisms identified.