Abstract
The present study is a part of a broader multisited field study on involvement of relatives in Danish psychiatry. The article aims to elucidate which political classifications of normality and mental illness that are displayed in two health political campaigns regarding anti-stigmatization and social inclusion and how such classifications co-constitute the subjectivity of individuals suffering from mental illness and their relatives. Drawing on a discourse theoretical perspective laid out by political theorists Laclau and Mouffe, we analyze how the campaigns bring into effect a weak and ineffective subject of deviance and how it is constituted by a subject of normality characterized by opposing traits. The article takes up the discussion of how the campaigns’ articulations of the subjects of normality and deviance are imbedded in a hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism and individualism that asserts involvement as an expanded division of responsibility for the identification, classification and regulation of mentally ill subjects between public and private spheres of the Danish welfare state.
Highlights
This analysis investigates issues of classification and constitution of subjectivity in materials from two DanishHow to cite this paper: Oute, J., Huniche, L., Nielsen, C
Based on materials from two anti-stigma and social inclusion campaigns found at these clinical sites, signs and symbols of involvement were further traced on to the political sites consisting of numerous virtual governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)’ websites including the “One of Us” and “Mentally Vulnerable” campaigns
The open-ended coding of the materials was managed using NVivo 9.0 software. Because this critical analysis of political subjectivities and involvement processes is grounded in what can be labelled constructivist ethnography (Marcus, 1998; Shore et al, 2011), we found it coherent to draw on a notion of discourse and subjectivity set out by political theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (Laclau & Mouffe, 2001)
Summary
This analysis investigates issues of classification and constitution of subjectivity in materials from two DanishHow to cite this paper: Oute, J., Huniche, L., Nielsen, C. The Politics of Mental Illness and Involvement—A Discourse Analysis of Danish Anti-Stigma and Social Inclusion Campaigns. As the campaign materials both reflected the official discourse of the two psychiatric hospitals’ and the official engagements in involvement of the Danish welfare state, the campaign materials were singled out for this investigation in order to elucidate the overall health political conditions for involvement and social inclusion in the psychiatric field
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