Ignorance and complexity: the sociology of mental illness

Is a sociology of mental illness possible? This article addresses this question by first describing the lack of proven knowledge concerning mental health issues (ignorance). It then sets out to describe how social systems tackle such inherent complexity from the perspective of social systems theory. Following the discussion of these two key elements, we review four contributions to the sociology of mental illness: firstly, the concept of literacy in mental health in contemporary societies; secondly, we describe the complex framework that links a stigma of violence and dangerousness to mental health issues; thirdly, the proposal of models based on agents; and finally, the social imaginaries of mental illness as tools to understand the simplification of such complexity and the handling of ignorance that any social system needs to address. The article concludes with a positive response to the research question posed and defines the conditions required to make a sociology of mental illness feasible.