scholarly journals Metaphysical Diversity in Mental Health Discourse: The Key to Scientific Progress in the Helping Professions

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-30
Author(s):  
David R. HODGE
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Helping Professions ◽  
Health Discourse

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.

scholarly journals Interrogating psychocentrism and the role of a white researcher

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordana Rovet
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Health Discourse

This work represents a culmination of experiences of individuals who have been subjected to adolescent psychiatrization and particularly, the influences of psychocentrism. This work builds upon the notion of psychocentrism as a social justice issue by exploring how its’ embeddedness within dominant mental health discourse functions to disregard the systemic, historical and cultural factors contributing to individual experiences of emotional distress. Through this analysis, the tensions of a white researcher with social justice aims is problematized and explored in tandem with the findings of this research.

scholarly journals Perception of internal medicine residents regarding psychiatric patients’ care

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Roberto Oliveira Henrique Santana ◽  
Cibele Isaac Saad Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Internal Medicine ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Attribution Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional Design

Abstract: Introduction: Mental disorders are accountable for the segregation of patients in many diverse cultures and historical moments worldwide. The evolution of neuroscience, technologies and advances in the psychosocial sphere have not been enough to change this paradigm. Many people still fear having social relations with someone with a psychiatric disorder, despite scientific progress and efforts to reduce prejudice in recent decades. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the training in mental health during the undergraduate course offered to residents in Internal Medicine and analyze the feelings, perceptions, and stigmas of these physicians regarding the care offered to patients with mental disorders. Method: This study has a qualitative, quantitative approach and descriptive, cross-sectional design. Thirty-two residents in Internal Medicine participated and, for comparison, the questionnaires were also answered by 8 residents in Psychiatry. Two instruments were applied: one for the characterization of the participants’ sociodemographic profile and the attribution questionnaire (AQ-26B). Qualitative data were obtained through a focus group with 14 residents and the content analysis was used for categorization. The most frequent categories were illustrated with Pareto charts. Results: The results demonstrated that residents in internal medicine showed higher indexes of stigma regarding aspects such as fear and intolerance. It was also possible to infer gaps related to training in mental health, low perception of care responsibility, in addition to the difficulty in legitimizing complaints and showing negative feelings. Conclusion: One can conclude the need for educational interventions that promote the decrease of the stigma and the search for training regarding comprehensive and empathic care for patients with mental disorders.

Time-dependent association between the discussions of mass protests and mental health on social media during the 2019 anti-government social unrest in Hong Kong: A text mining study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Shaunlyn Chan ◽  
Takeshi Hamamura
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Time Lagged ◽  
Mass Protest ◽  
Dynamic Relationships ◽  
Health Discourse

PurposeSocial media are increasingly pivotal as the platform where activists and observers plan, promote, and respond to collective actions. To examine how mental health discourse might be impacted by mass protests, this study analyzed their time-dependent association during the 2019 anti-government social unrest in Hong Kong.MethodsConsecutive day-by-day user-generated content on online forums and social network sites (SNS) from June to November 2019 was obtained. A Cantonese term-list was created to identify terms related to mass protests and mental health discourse. The frequency of comments containing such terms was analyzed using time series models.ResultsThere were 3,572,665 social media comments in the investigation period. As hypothesized, the frequency of comments with mass protest terms was higher on days with mass protests than on days without. Frequency of comments with both mass protest- and mental health-terms was also higher on days with protests than days without. A time-lagged effect of protest-terms was found on online forums but not on SNS. Our results suggest a positive association between offline protest activities and online psychological reactions.ConclusionsSocial media content reveals discussion of mental health concerns stemming from, or exacerbated by, social unrest. The potential mutual influences between mass protests and online reactions, as well as the functional differences between online forums and SNS in this regard, are discussed. Street protests and their associated mental health discourse can be readily detected on popular online forums. Mental health services should consider such dynamic relationships between on- and offline activities.

Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther von (1651–1708)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Schonfeld
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
High Temperatures ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Natural Philosopher

The natural philosopher E.W. von Tschirnhaus emphasized bodily and mental health, was a friend of Spinoza and correspondent of Leibniz. He perfected the construction of concave mirrors (used to generate extremely high temperatures) and was probably the first European to produce porcelain. Hoping to make scientific progress more predictable, Tschirnhaus devised a method of inquiry orientated to mathematics and experimentation.

How are Suicide Bombers Analysed in Mental Health Discourse? A Critical Anthropological Reading

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-393
Author(s):  
Neil K. Aggarwal
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Suicide Bombing ◽  
Suicide Bomber ◽  
Value Differences ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Suicide Bombers ◽  
Mental Health Literature ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Health Discourse ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper complicates the notion of the suicide bomber as represented in mental health literature. Most authors apply Western psychiatric concepts to understand suicide bombers without accounting for value differences around life and death or terrorism and martyrdom. Accordingly, these researchers replicate arguments to explain individual behaviour from a particular epistemological perspective. In contrast, critical approaches to this literature can expose the worldviews of the analysers and the analysed to devise sounder interpretations. This paper scrutinises mental health discourse on suicide bombing to ask: (1) What do we learn about the authors of suicide bombers in these articles? (2) How do their analyses demonstrate the relationship between knowledge and power? These conclusions can enable researchers to reduce biases and devise behavioural models that more accurately reflect the realities of their subjects.

Modes of survival

Geophysics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1845-1846
Author(s):  
John A. Scales ◽  
Roel Snieder
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Abraham Maslow ◽  
Routine Basis ◽  
The Way

Scientific progress is fundamentally different from other human activities in that it involves both a venture into the unknown and a desire to change the environment. This type of work cannot be carried out on a routine basis and it requires a certain amount of mental health for its successful completion. The mental state of a researcher is to a large extent influenced by his or her environment; the environment is a crucial factor in the way people react and in a broader context on the development of one’s personality. One of the best‐known writers on personality development is Abraham Maslow (1954), who describes the various levels at which human beings actually function. His view is succinctly formulated by Takacs (1986).

Mental Illness Beliefs Inventory: A Preliminary Validation of a Measure of the Level of Belief in the Medical Model of Mental Illness

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve J. Lewis ◽  
Jeffrey R. Lacasse ◽  
Jennifer Spaulding-Givens
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Validation Studies ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Helping Professions ◽  
Illness Beliefs ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Mental Health Practice ◽  
Preliminary Validation ◽  
Instrument Measuring

The Mental Illness Beliefs Inventory (MIBI) measures the extent to which an individual subscribes to the medical model of mental illness. This article reports the results of two preliminary validation studies. The first study establishes the initial psychometric properties for the MIBI, based on a sample of 222 students in the helping professions; the second study tests the model established in the first study with an additional 270 students. The MIBI performs well as a composite instrument measuring belief in the medical model of mental illness. This instrument shows promise for examining the extent to which individual beliefs affect mental health practice.

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