According to some, we are in the midst of an ongoing paradigm shift, as resistance groups are now building an “unshakable critical mass” (Timimi, 2020; Lindblom, 2023, 238). However, there is significant inertia and inherent resistance because so many have invested their identity in the system and believed they have done their utmost, while other problems stem from the system itself. The hegemony is strong for several reasons, including money, prestige, identity, medicalized public health policy (Lindblom, 2023), narrow education, and psychological and psychiatric consciousness.
What remains, however, and is a massive undertaking, is to build the paradigm. My contribution is to begin developing a socio, analysis; exercises and diagnoses are heuristic tools that make thinking more theoretical and support the raising of awareness, rather than getting bogged down in overly technical language. Using only everyday, experience, based language is a strength (Lindblom, 2023), but it may also be important to complement this with a more technical and abstract conceptual framework that sociology can contribute.
This review has addressed clinical sociology (Fritz, 2020), social work (critical social work) (Webb, 2019), critical psychiatry and psychotherapy (Moloney, 2013), psychosocial studies (Woodward, 2015), mad studies (Ingram, 2016), critical mental health studies (Cohen, 2018), medical and health sociology (Rogers & Pilgram, 2014), social psychiatry and social, psychological psychiatry (Rose, 2019, Lindblom, 2023), cultural sociological critiques of psychotherapy and psychiatry (Illouz, Furedi, Cederström, Paulsen, Rose, 1998, 2017, Scull, 2018, 2022, Morall, 2018), and broader teragogy (Alvesson, 2019, Illich, 1975).
Here, there is a range of different fields, each with its own focus, yet converging on several points in understanding human psychology from sociological perspectives, with some being more interdisciplinary. These branches have developed into “tribes” that do not communicate with one another. This is evident in the difficulty of gaining an overview of all the fields.
There are interesting differences: clinical sociology holds the belief that a sociotherapist or someone in a clinical role can be part of something better, while mad studies and certain strands of critical mental health studies argue that this always leads to an imbalance of power and that it is better to democratize the process and adopt a horizontal approach through self, help groups, thereby creating alternative solutions beyond the clinical perspective.
These areas are partly linked to other fields, such as political sociology and general sociological work on the good life (Rosa, 2019, 5). I believe the connection between these different fields could be strengthened.
To advance the current state of research, I will propose an integrated socioanalysis with an accompanying framework for sociological diagnoses. This will then be followed by socioasceticism.