Joan Busfield (born 22 June 1940), is a British sociologist and psychologist, Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex and former President of the British Sociological Association (2003–2005). Her research focuses on psychiatry and mental disorder.
She originally trained as a clinical psychologist at the Tavistock Clinic, and holds an MA from St Andrews, and a MA and a PhD from Essex.
Busfield, Joan; Paddon, Michael (1977). Thinking about children: sociology and fertility in post-war England. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521214025.
Busfield, Joan (1989). Managing madness: changing ideas and practice. London: Unwin Hyman. ISBN 9780044453802.
Busfield, Joan (1996). Men, women, and madness: understanding gender and mental disorder. Washington Square, New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780333463703.
Busfield, Joan; Lyon, E. Stina (1996). Methodological imaginations. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: MacMillan. ISBN 9780333630921.
Busfield, Joan (2000). Health and health care in modern Britain. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198781233.
Busfield, Joan (2011). Mental illness. Cambridge, UK Malden, Massachusetts: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745649054.
Busfield, J., (2017). The concept of medicalisation reassessed: a rejoinder. Sociology of Health and Illness. 39 (5), 781–783
Busfield, J., (2017). The Concept of Medicalisation Reassessed. Sociology of Health and Illness. 39 (5), 759–774
Busfield, J., (2015). Assessing the overuse of medicines. Social Science & Medicine. 131, 199–206
Busfield, J., (2012). Challenging claims that mental illness has been increasing and mental well-being declining.. Social Science & Medicine. 75 (3), 581–8
Busfield, J., (2010). ?A pill for every ill?: Explaining the expansion in medicine use. Social Science & Medicine. 70 (6), 934–941
Busfield, J., (2007). Sociological Understandings of the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Response to John Abraham. Sociology. 41 (4), 737-739
Busfield, J., (2006). Pills, Power, People: Sociological Understandings of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Sociology. 40 (2), 297–314
Busfield, J., (2004). Mental health problems, psychotropic drug technologies and risk. Health, Risk & Society. 6 (4), 361–375
Busfield, J., (2004). Class and gender in twentieth-century British psychiatry: shell-shock and psychopathic disorder.. Clio medica (Amsterdam, Netherlands). 73, 295–322
Busfield, J., (2003). Globalization and the Pharmaceutical Industry Revisited. International Journal of Health Services. 33 (3), 581–605