Making Sense of Mental Health & Mental Illness
Examines critical perspectives of contemporary psychiatry and the mental health system, including power structures, cultural views, and the history and values of those served.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.06 GPA, 44.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Demonstrate awareness of their own assumptions and values related to ‘mental health’ , ‘mental illness’ and experiences that influence their perspectives.
Identify the strengths and limitations of the approaches, services and systems designed to address mental health and mental illness currently and historically.
Understand the importance of the historical and cultural background of individuals and communities for developing and delivering culturally sensitive and socially just mental health interventions.
Understand and assess how critical theories challenge mainstream western conceptions and treatment approaches for mental illness and demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate the merits and limitations of these critical theories.
Analyze alternatives for the treatment and care of severe mental illnesses that provide sustained support, choice, and empowerment to services users.
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing
- Sophomore standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Sophomore standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.06 GPA, 44.0% A/AB (n=25 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Critical perspectives of contemporary psychiatry and the mental health system
- Power structures
- Global and national cultural perspectives on mental health and illness
- History, values, norms, and preferences of those served
- Critical theories challenging mainstream western conceptions and treatment approaches
- Alternatives for treatment and care of severe mental illnesses
Skills
- Awareness of personal assumptions and values related to mental health and illness
- Identification of strengths and limitations of mental health approaches, services, and systems
- Development and delivery of culturally sensitive and socially just mental health interventions
- Critical evaluation of critical theories challenging mainstream western conceptions and treatment approaches
- Analysis of alternatives for treatment and care of severe mental illnesses providing support, choice, and empowerment
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
No records available.
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"requirements_status": "valid",
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"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
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