scholarly journals Autoethnography & Goffman`s Asylums: Re-Storying Mental Illness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Mental Institution ◽  
Health Discourse

Mental illness narratives occupy a small, unstable place within critical discourse. Within both research and social practices, mental illness is often seen as a limitation instead of an alternative way of knowing, and thus, personal accounts are swept aside in favor of more “objective” research. In 1961, famed sociologist Erving Goffman published Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates after observing the daily life of a mental institution. While the book breathed life into the deinstitutionalization movement, it also undermined the narrative autonomy of the patients that it spoke for. In this paper, autoethnography is used to complement and challenge Goffman’s research, while arguing that there is a better way of positioning the patient narrative within mental health research. It is a way of reconciling my identities as a person with mental illness and an academic, and bringing lived experience to the forefront of mental health discourse, where it belongs.

scholarly journals Autoethnography & Goffman`s Asylums: Re-Storying Mental Illness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Mental Institution ◽  
Health Discourse

Mental illness narratives occupy a small, unstable place within critical discourse. Within both research and social practices, mental illness is often seen as a limitation instead of an alternative way of knowing, and thus, personal accounts are swept aside in favor of more “objective” research. In 1961, famed sociologist Erving Goffman published Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates after observing the daily life of a mental institution. While the book breathed life into the deinstitutionalization movement, it also undermined the narrative autonomy of the patients that it spoke for. In this paper, autoethnography is used to complement and challenge Goffman’s research, while arguing that there is a better way of positioning the patient narrative within mental health research. It is a way of reconciling my identities as a person with mental illness and an academic, and bringing lived experience to the forefront of mental health discourse, where it belongs.

The Social and Emotional Impact of Involving Individuals With Mental Illness in the Research Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1634-1640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliza Werner-Seidler ◽  
Frances Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Advisory Panel ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Social

There is a need to involve individuals with a lived experience in health and medical research. Some organizations have developed mechanisms to seek the input of people with a lived experience. However, there are few examples of qualitative research into the impacts of participation. In this study, we investigate the social and emotional impact of participation on individuals, as well as the perceived impact on the organization, in an advisory panel at an Australian mental health research institute. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 50% of the participants on the panel to understand how they conceptualized their involvement. Participants became invested in the organization and their role within it, and found it personally valuable to access diverse perspectives and discuss mental health outside a treatment context. These findings suggest that participating in the research process is beneficial to individuals with a lived experience of mental illness.

scholarly journals Pharmaceutical industry, academia and people with experience of mental illness as partners in research: a need for ethical guidance

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Sapfo Lignou ◽  
Ilina Singh
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Research Institutions ◽  
Research Partnerships ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Ethical Guidance

Background: Several social and policy developments have led to research partnerships in mental health research, which depart from traditional research models. One form of such partnerships is among research institutions, industry (pharmaceutical and biotech) and people with lived experience of mental illness (RIPs). There are several benefits but also ethical challenges in RIPs. An ethics-based approach to anticipating and addressing such ethical issues in mental health research is lacking. Given the expansion of RIPs in treatment development for mental health illness, guidance to support ethical and trustworthy collaborative mental health research projects is essential. Methods: To develop a moral framework for evaluating the ethics of RIPs, we systematically searched PubMed for peer-reviewed literature discussing good practices in research partnerships. Searches were also conducted in websites of known organizations supporting patient engagement with industry in mental health research and in the references of short-listed articles. Following application of exclusion criteria, remaining articles were critically examined and summarised to synthesise principles for ethically acceptable RIPs and inform clear guidance and practices. Results: Critical analysis and synthesis of the short-listed articles highlighted the need for two sets of principles to guide ethical RIPs: principles for (a) RIPs as a trustworthy enterprise (e.g. public accountability, transparency) and (b) fair RIPs (e.g. effective governance, respect). We discuss the application of these principles in problem-solving strategies that can support best practice in establishing fair and successful mental health research partnerships among research institutions, industry and people with lived experience of mental illness. Conclusions: Ethical guidance is needed to prevent and address challenges in RIPs and to promote the scientific and social benefits of these new research partnership models in mental health research. We show how the proposed moral framework can guide research partners in designing, sustaining and assessing ethical and trustworthy collaborative mental health research projects.

scholarly journals Pharmaceutical industry, academia and people with experience of mental illness as partners in research: a need for ethical guidance

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Sapfo Lignou ◽  
Ilina Singh
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Research Institutions ◽  
Research Partnerships ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Ethical Guidance

Background: Several social and policy developments have led to research partnerships in mental health research, which depart from traditional research models. One form of such partnerships is among Research institutions, Industry (pharmaceutical and biotech) and People with lived experience of mental illness (RIPs) in the NIHR services. There are several benefits but also challenges in such partnerships. An ethics-based approach to anticipating and addressing such problems is lacking. Given the expansion of RIPs in treatment development for mental health illness, guidance to support ethical and effective collaborations in NIHR-funded mental health research is essential. Methods: To develop a moral framework for evaluating the ethics of RIPs, we systematically searched PubMed for peer-reviewed literature discussing good practices in research partnerships. Searches were also conducted in websites of known organizations supporting patient engagement with industry in mental health research and in the references of short-listed articles. Following application of exclusion criteria, remaining articles were critically examined and summarised to synthesise principles for ethical RIPs and inform clear guidance and practices. Results: Critical analysis and synthesis of the short-listed articles highlighted the need for two sets of principles to guide ethical RIPs: principles for (a) RIPs as a trustworthy enterprise and (b) fair RIPs. We discuss the application of these principles in problem-solving strategies that can support best practice in establishing fair and effective research partnerships among research institutions, industry and people with lived experience of mental illness in the NIHR services. Conclusions: Ethical guidance is needed to prevent and address challenges in RIPs and to promote the scientific and social benefits of these new research partnership models in mental health research in the NIHR services. We show how the proposed moral framework can guide research partners in designing, sustaining and assessing ethical and effective mental health research collaborations.

Prescriptive Power: Biologism, Biopsychiatry and Drug-centred Psychopharmacology

Somatechnics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-309
Author(s):  
Francis Russell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
False Consciousness ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biological Ontology ◽  
Health Discourse

This paper looks to make a contribution to the critical project of psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, by elucidating her account of ‘drug-centred’ psychiatry, and its relation to critical and cultural theory. Moncrieff's ‘drug-centred’ approach to psychiatry challenges the dominant view of mental illness, and psychopharmacology, as necessitating a strictly biological ontology. Against the mainstream view that mental illnesses have biological causes, and that medications like ‘anti-depressants’ target specific biological abnormalities, Moncrieff looks to connect pharmacotherapy for mental illness to human experience, and to issues of social justice and emancipation. However, Moncrieff's project is complicated by her framing of psychopharmacological politics in classical Marxist notions of ideology and false consciousness. Accordingly, she articulates a political project that would open up psychiatry to the subjugated knowledge of mental health sufferers, whilst also characterising those sufferers as beholden to ideology, and as being effectively without knowledge. Accordingly, in order to contribute to Moncrieff's project, and to help introduce her work to a broader humanities readership, this paper elucidates her account of ‘drug-centred psychiatry’, whilst also connecting her critique of biopsychiatry to notions of biologism, biopolitics, and bio-citizenship. This is done in order to re-describe the subject of mental health discourse, so as to better reveal their capacities and agency. As a result, this paper contends that, once reframed, Moncrieff's work helps us to see value in attending to human experience when considering pharmacotherapy for mental illness.

Overcoming the deficiency of refugee mental health research

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kalfic ◽  
Glenn Mitchell ◽  
Lezanne Ooi ◽  
Sibylle Schwab ◽  
Natalie Matosin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Refugee Mental Health ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

The growing number of refugees and asylum seekers are one of the most significant global challenges of this generation. We are currently witnessing the highest level of displacement in history, with over 65 million displaced people in the world. Refugees and asylum seekers are at higher risk to develop mental illness due to their trauma and chronic stress exposures, and particularly post-migration stressors. Yet global and Australian psychiatric research in this area is greatly lacking, particularly with respect to our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of risk and resilience to mental illness in traumatised populations. In this Viewpoint, we explore the reasons behind the lack of refugee mental health research and use this context to propose new ways forward. We believe that scientific discovery performed with a multidisciplinary approach will provide the broad evidence-base required to improve refugee mental health. This will also allow us to work towards the removal of damaging policies that prolong and potentiate mental health deterioration among refugees and asylum seekers, which impacts not only on the individuals but also host countries’ social, economic and healthcare systems.

Making privilege palatable: Normative sustainability in chefs’ Instagram discourse

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Gwynne Mapes ◽  
Andrew S. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Class Inequality ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Social Prestige ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Community Responsibility ◽  
Personal Accounts

Abstract In this article we consider the discursive production of status as it relates to democratic ideals of environmental equity and community responsibility, orienting specifically to food discourse and ‘elite authenticity’ (Mapes 2018), as well as to recent work concerning normativity and class inequality (e.g. Thurlow 2016; Hall, Levon, & Milani 2019). Utilizing a dataset comprised of 150 Instagram posts, drawn from three different acclaimed chefs’ personal accounts, we examine the ways in which these celebrities emphasize local/sustainable food practices while simultaneously asserting their claims to privileged eating. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, we document three general discursive tactics: (i) plant-based emphasis, (ii) local/community terroir, and (iii) realities of meat consumption. Ultimately, we establish how the chefs’ claims to egalitarian/environmental ideals paradoxically diminish their eliteness, while simultaneously elevating their social prestige, pointing to the often complicated and covert ways in which class inequality permeates the social landscape of contemporary eating. (Food discourse, elite authenticity, normativity, social class, locality/sustainability)*

Valuing the voice of lived experience of eating disorders in the research process: Benefits and considerations

2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742199879
Author(s):  
Selma Musić ◽  
Rosiel Elwyn ◽  
Grace Fountas ◽  
Inge Gnatt ◽  
Zoe M Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Direct Involvement ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Process Benefits

Although the inclusion of individuals with lived experience is encouraged within the research process, there remains inconsistent direct involvement in many mental health fields. Within the eating disorders field specifically, there is a very strong and increasing presence of lived experience advocacy. However, due to a number of potential challenges, research undertaken in consultation or in collaboration with individuals with lived experience of an eating disorder is scarce. This paper describes the significant benefits of the inclusion of individuals with lived experience in research. The specific challenges and barriers faced in eating disorders research are also outlined. It is concluded that in addition to existing guidelines on working with lived experience collaborators in mental health research, more specific procedures are required when working with those with eating disorders.

Mentalising and Epistemic Trust

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie Duschinsky ◽  
Sarah Foster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Context ◽  
The Self ◽  
Disorganized Attachment ◽  
Mental Health And Illness ◽  
Epistemic Trust ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
P Factor

The theory of mentalizing and epistemic trust introduced by Peter Fonagy and colleagues at the Anna Freud Centre has been an important perspective on mental health and illness. This book is the first comprehensive account and evaluation of this perspective. The book explores 20 primary concepts that organize the contributions of Fonagy and colleagues: adaptation, aggression, the alien self, culture, disorganized attachment, epistemic trust, hypermentalizing, reflective function, the p-factor, pretend mode, the primary unconscious, psychic equivalence, mental illness, mentalizing, mentalization-based therapy, non-mentalizing, the self, sexuality, the social environment, and teleological mode. The biographical and social context of the development of these ideas is examined. The book also specifies the current strengths and limitations of the theory of mentalizing and epistemic trust, with attention to the implications for both clinicians and researchers.

scholarly journals Storytelling, Safeguarding, Treatment, and Responsibility: attributes of recovery in psychiatric intensive care units

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karleen Gwinner ◽  
Louise Ward
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Psychiatric Distress ◽  
Nurse Knowledge

AbstractBackground and aimIn recent years, policy in Australia has endorsed recovery-oriented mental health services underpinned by the needs, rights and values of people with lived experience of mental illness. This paper critically reviews the idea of recovery as understood by nurses at the frontline of services for people experiencing acute psychiatric distress.MethodData gathered from focus groups held with nurses from two hospitals were used to ascertain their use of terminology, understanding of attributes and current practices that support recovery for people experiencing acute psychiatric distress. A review of literature further examined current nurse-based evidence and nurse knowledge of recovery approaches specific to psychiatric intensive care settings.ResultsFour defining attributes of recovery based on nurses’ perspectives are shared to identify and describe strategies that may help underpin recovery specific to psychiatric intensive care settings.ConclusionThe four attributes described in this paper provide a pragmatic framework with which nurses can reinforce their clinical decision-making and negotiate the dynamic and often incongruous challenges they experience to embed recovery-oriented culture in acute psychiatric settings.

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