Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Mental health has a long history of proving to be a tough concept to define. Multiple\nforms of knowledge and representation seek to inform as to the nature of mental health,\nall contributing to the production of immense complexity as to the experience of living\nwith mental health difficulties. This thesis sets out to explore this, by getting as close as\npossible to mental health service users’ actual experiences. A range of forms of\nknowledge that pertain to inform as to service users’ experiences are explored, prior to\nanalysing a corpus of interviews with service users. These are analysed through the\ndevelopment of a Deleuzian Discourse Analysis.\nService users’ experiences are analysed in terms of the relation between discursive and\nnon-discursive factors, which include forms of mainstream psychiatric discursive\npractice, such as the application of diagnostic criteria and administration of treatments,\nalong with how such practices are experienced in non-discursive dimensions of service\nuser embodiment and space. The challenges facing service users are seen to operate\naround identity and control in relation to forms of psychiatric knowledge, along with\npresenting particular problems with regard to how user embodiment is felt, primarily in\nrelation to psychiatric medication, and how these are driven into the production of\nservice user spaces, i.e. day centres. Finally, a politics of affectivity is offered, as a way\nto unfold the complexity of service user experience, and to emphasise the existence and\npotential for change that can be gained through deterritorialising mental health.
Author: Ian Tucker
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W825847632