Critical cultural disability studies and mental health: a rhetorical perspective

Abstract

This paper examines how an intersection of critical cultural disability studies and rhetorical studies can inform a critical education on ‘mental health (problems)’ for psychology students. Building on cultural theories of disability/impairment, a conception of ‘mental health (problems)’ as culturally constituted is introduced. We propose the rhetorical perspective as a particularly relevant analytical and pedagogical approach to enable students to critically reflect on the cultural assumptions underpinning various (professional) understandings of ‘mental health (problems)’. Our contribution is based on a research project in which clinical psychology students rhetorically analysed cultural constructions of ‘mental health (problems)’ in a graphic novel on ‘bipolar disorder’. Based on a qualitative analysis of students’ reflective reports, we argue that rhetorical perspectives enable students to develop reflexive stances towards the different cultural logics, and the ethical and political ramifications of these logics, in which psychological practice and knowledge on ‘mental health (problems)’ are inevitably embedded. Points of interest This article argues that clinical psychology students need to think critically about the language they use to think and talk about mental health problems because this language has an impact on their beliefs, attitudes and actions towards people experiencing mental health problems. Educators can support students in this endeavour by introducing them to stories that challenge some of the dominant ways society thinks and talks about mental health problems, for example by working with stories or art work of survivors. In this study, clinical psychology students read an autobiographical graphic novel on ‘bipolar disorder’. The graphic novel made students reflect on how the main character in the novel experiences mental health problems, on their personal and professional assumptions about mental health problems, and on dominant societal assumptions about mental health problems and their impact.