>>12312590I've taken a few social science classes, and nothing could be further from the truth. Functionalism is the most commonly-taught sociological theory, and its founder, Durkheim, was basically a paleoconservative. He believed that every aspect of society serves a specific purpose, and that tampering with the order of things is extremely dangerous. He also argued that people in a society share a "collective conscience," which is basically a more refined version of "volksgeist," a popular term in Nazi literature.
That being said, I agree with
>>12313820. Science is about controlled experiments, and you can't meaningfully control for the millions of variables that make up any given person's daily life. A lot of sociological theories also define ailments in relation to "normal function," which means diagnosing mental illness has less to do with what a patient experiences, and more to do with how well they fit into contemporary society.
