While the social environment of an individual is an essential component to understanding the management of psychiatric disorders, these aspects are often ignored due to the emphasis on pharmacological treatment in contemporary psychiatry. Social psychiatry is a branch of psychiatry concerned with the social dimension of mental health and healthcare. It borrows concepts and methods from the social sciences, including sociology, psychology, and anthropology, to investigate the social factors that influence and are relevant to the occurrence, expression, course, and care of mental disorders.

The WASP Textbook on Social Psychiatry aims to review the history and current state of the field of social psychiatry. With topics ranging from adolescence to aging, gender, immigrant and other displaced statuses, religion, and more, this ambitious book tackles the wide spectrum of social factors that impact an individual's mental health. Chapters also inspect special topics of current events, including the impact of SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) and the global response to the pandemic on mental health, the role of social psychiatry in matters of terrorism and violent conflict, and the consequences of information technology. The 41 chapters of the textbook-authored by more than 50 experts from 13 countries and carefully edited by the five editors-present an invaluable assembly of material which can be used as fundamental teaching aid in the education of future and current health workers.