Mental Health and Social Justice: Gender, Race and Psychological Consequences of Unfairness

Correspondence to: Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK. Summary It is not immediately obvious how social justice might relateto mental health. Mental health or ill health is, by some, thoughtto be inherent within the individual, whereas social justice,as its name indicates, resides within the realm of the social.However, where we understand social justice as, on the one hand,an issue involving equality and fairness, and on the other ashaving both material and symbolic dimensions it becomes clearthat there is an important link. In particular groups whichsuffer disadvantage and discrimination may be expected to sufferhigher rates of mental ill health. However, the key to understandingthis is by identifying the mechanisms by which this can happen.In order to do this it is necessary that we do not look at mentalhealth (or illness) in an undifferentiated way, since thereare different processes involved for different forms of mentalill health. We shall, therefore, look at this by focusing onthe issue of social justice through two significant relationships:gender and depression, and race and schizophrenia. We shallexamine the mechanisms which link these together, and show howthey are significant psychological consequences of social injusticearising in both material and symbolic form.