how we feel about, experience & interpret our lives
DESCRIPTION
‘It’s a hearts & minds thing’ Mental health & the psychologising of social justice in Scotland Lynne Friedli Centre for Human Ecology Glasgow 23 rd April 2014. (Mental )... Wellbeing . how we feel about, experience & interpret our lives. It’s a hearts and minds thing. Framing and erasure. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
‘It’s a hearts & minds thing’Mental health & the psychologising of
social justice in Scotland
Lynne Friedli
Centre for Human EcologyGlasgow
23rd April 2014
how we feel about, experience & interpret
our lives
Social justice: it’s a hearts and minds thing
It’s a hearts and minds thing....
(Mental)... Wellbeing......
Framing and erasure
• Construction of psychological ideal• Poor outcomes are a result of psychological
deficit• Erasure of economic realities & social
determinants• Compulsory positive affect & psychological
coercion
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
solutions to the widening gap in health inequalities will need to take into account early life & personality, as well as the more the classically recognised factors such as smoking, diet, cholesterol & blood pressure if we are to stand a chance of narrowing the gap in health by improving the health of those most in need.
GCPH ‘assets’ 2014
Strengths based lexicon
Assets/Resilience/Recovery;
• agency; efficacy; aspiration
• self-reliance, discipline, entrepreneurial, optimistic
• Sense of coherence (strengths not deficits); hope;
• well note replaces sick note; self-care
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
‘...the development of their own capabilities to manage their way out of poverty’
Scottish Government 2011 New dictionary
Class Struggle co-productionFight for your rights count your assetsRage sense of coherenceSocial security conditionalitySolidarity recoil from dependencyJustice survival of fittest
‘Recovery journey’ extended to all citizens
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
‘.’
Rooting out dependency and need
Building psychological resilience and wellbeing for those who are still claiming after 8 weeks through expressive writing & strengths identification.‘failure to comply may result in loss of benefits’(Psychometric testing for JSA claimants)
‘who matters and who does not, who is disposable and who is not’
Achille Mbembe
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Is recovery about being well enough to be thrown into the world of sharks? Where is the recovery model for the society of sharks?
Dolly Sen
Source: http://mentalhealthrecovery.omeka.net/exhibits/show/dollysen/isrecoverytherightword
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Picture source: Dolly Sen My story is on my skin
As material inequalities grow,
so the pursuit of non material explanations
proliferates
a paradox....
‘Grace beats karma’
http://mentalhealthrecovery.omeka.net/items/show/90
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Source: Banksy– graffiti, London, England
I own, therefore I am....
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Life Bodily healthBodily integrity Sense,
imagination, thought
Emotions Practical reasonAffiliation Other speciesPlay Control over
environment:a) Politicalb) MaterialSource: Nussbaum
2011
Capabilities & fundamental entitlementsThey speak to the resistance of deprived communities to being pathologised, criminalised, ostracised; to being described in public health reports in terms of multiple deficits and disorders: ‘chaotic, unengaged, and disaffected’
Friedli 2013
The holy grail of positive affect
Many Americans cannot stand to be unhappy, cannot stand to grieve and cannot stand to look at poverty or the real damages of war. One could argue that this is a larger problem than the problem of excessive unhappiness.
Martha Nussbaum
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Personality and health in Glasgow
'the identification of individuals whose personality styles render them vulnerable to particular health risks‘ Millar et al 2013 p.8
‘to establish if those who need to take on board lifestyle messages (weight loss, physical activity) are in a position affectively and intellectually to receive them.’ Velupillai et al 2008 p2
‘(brain) that is less robust and less efficient in information processing ... some evidence of the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and brain network topology.’
Krishnadas et al 2013
GCPH pSoBid Study http://www.gcph.co.uk/assets/0000/4244/pSoBid_FINAL_REPORT_2013_update_February2014.pdf
A4e Engage Module
• assertiveness, confidence, benefits of work, motivation, enhance your mood
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
‘to appreciate the importance of mindset to employers’ - students will learn how to develop the right mindset which will appeal to employers’My Journey ‘job goal’ – e.g. to work in a retail shop as an assistant, full time, for a wage of £11,000
Picture source: Johnny Void
Substitution of outcomes
‘Evidence from this evaluation suggests that while there was no significant difference in job outcomes …. the OCM & CAP trailblazer strands were successful in achieving soft outcomes such as increases in motivation, confidence, job-seeking behaviour and a positive change in attitudes to work. These softer impacts may yet translate into job outcomes and sign off from JSA.’
Rahim et al (2012) Evaluation of SVLTU DWP Research Summary (emphasis added)
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
What we all need....
To be:• Heard• Believed• Understood• Respected
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
Picture Source: http://sarahdrummond.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/an-assets-alliance-scotland/
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...
holding onto radical roots..
Welcoming the spectres of disability....Robert McRuer Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies
Negativity enacts the dissent without which politics disappears.
Berlant & Edelman 2014
Declaration of Intent of the Mental Patients Union • We proclaim the dignity of society's so-called mental
patients. • We challenge repressive psychiatric practice &its ill-
defined concepts of 'mental illness'• We state that the present appalling situation in
'mental health' primarily arises from acute problems in housing, unemployment & social inequality
• Mental patients in our society are treated as people with no human rights
To respect strength, never power
Arundhati Roy
So many times will you be killedso many will you reviveso many years will you spenddespairing.And at that moment of shipwreckand of darknesssomeone will rescue youto go on singing.Singing in the sunlike the Cicada....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_-kUkP998María Elena Walsh: Como la cigarra /Like the Cicada
Select bibliography – reading, influences, acknowledgements
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/; Robert Stearn, Warren Clark, Johnny VoidImogen Tyler Revolting subjects:Social AbjectionBerlant Lauren Cruel Optimism Differences 17, 5 (2006): 21-36; and New Formations (2008; longer version) Slow Death in Critical Inquiry 33 (Summer 2007): 754-780Mel Y Chen AnimaciesKrieger, N. 2011. Epidemiology and the People’s Health: Theory and Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Nussbaum, M. 2011. Creating Capabilities – The Human Development Approach Cambridge Massachussets: Harvard University PressShildrick T et al Poverty and Insecurity: Life in low-pay, No-pay Britain (Studies in Poverty, Inequality & Social Exclusion Series... Howell A & Veronka J The Politics of Resilience & recovery in mental health care http://www.academia.edu/3366809/Introduction_The_Politics_of_Resilience_and_Recovery_in_Mental_Health_CareAnne-Emanuelle, Birn. 2009. “Making it Politic(al): Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health.” Social Medicine 4: 166–182.
Social justice? It's a hearts and minds thing...