PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - P Barker AU - P Buchanan-Barker TI - Mental health in an age of celebrity: the courage to care AID - 10.1136/jmh.2008.000539 DP - 2008 Dec 01 TA - Medical Humanities PG - 110--114 VI - 34 IP - 2 4099 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/34/2/110.short 4100 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/34/2/110.full SO - J Med Humanit2008 Dec 01; 34 AB - Modern psychiatry, which once focused only on the containment and “cure” of madness, has evolved into a mental health industry, where almost every aspect of human life, may be cast as a “mental disorder”. In Western countries, a narcissistic appetite for self-improvement and “well-being” has evolved over the past 50 years, mirroring the emergence of the celebrity culture. These developments appear linked to a fading of interest in the traditional concept of human caring, leading to a further marginalisation of people with serious “mental health problems” and to increased use of authoritarian forms of control and containment. In this paper, the idea of vocation in the field of mental health is explored. What exactly are we called to do as people—whether as professionals, friends or fellow travellers—when someone experiences a significant problem in human living?