Sociology begins with individuals' experiences in order to explore the collective themes and patterns of human behaviour that shape our society and the distribution of health within it (Willis, 1993). This essay will describe the "sociological imagination" and then apply the concepts of the sociological enterprise to Aboriginal health and illness. The discussion will include how a sociological perspective contributes to understanding social exclusion and its affects on aboriginal mental illness . The "sociological imagination" asserts that …showed first 75 words of 1757 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1757 total…Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. Swan, P., Raphael, B., 1997, The Mental Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, International Journal of Mental Health, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 9-22. Tsey, K., Whiteside, M., Deemal, A., Gibson, T., Social Determinants of Health, the 'Control Factor' and the Family Wellbeing Empowerment Program, Australian Psychiatry, vol. 11, pp. 34-39. Wilkinson, R., 1996, Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality, Routledge, New York. Willis, E.,1993, The Sociological Quest, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards.