Storytelling:An Act of Resistance or a Commodity? (original) (raw)

Abstract

Telling our own stories of our experiences of distress and madness, of oppression and treatment, of survival and resistance, is a source of power for people who use or are forced to use mental health services. Storytelling has created a space for people, whose voices have been traditionally silenced, to be heard, affirmed, and to organise into collective action. However, recent trends suggest that these stories are becoming a commodity with mental health organisations and educational institutions using them primarily to promote their own agendas. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to disempower and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. (Adichie, 2009) We three women are activists (survivors, researchers, and educators) and, drawing from our experiences in the Scottish and Irish contexts, we discuss the need to constantly problematise what has been achieved through the user movement. We are frustrated because people who share their stories remain disadvantaged, often unpaid, unequal partners while organisations, professionals, and academics benefit through receiving funding and building a career path on the basis of user

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (19)

  1. Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). The Danger of a Single Story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda\_adichie\_the\_danger\_of\_a\_single\_story
  2. Brosnan, L. (2012). Power and participation: An examination of the dynamics of mental health service-user involvement in Ireland. Studies in Social Justice, 6(1), 45-66.
  3. Brosnan, L. (2013). Service-user involvement in Irish mental health services: A sociological analysis of inherent tensions for service-users, service-providers and social movement actors (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Limerick, Limerick.
  4. Buck-Zerchin, D. S. (2017). Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener (BPE) e.V. Federal Organisation of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry in Germany. Retrieved July 17, 2017, from http://www.bpe-online.de/english/dorotheabuck.htm
  5. Chamberlin, J. (1978). On our own: Patient controlled alternatives to the mental health system. New JEMH • Open Volume 10 | Page 12
  6. © 2019 Journal of Ethics in Mental Health (ISSN: 1916-2405)
  7. ARTICLE York: Haworth Press.
  8. Church, K. (2013). Making madness matter in academic practice. In B. A. LeFrançois, R. Menzies, & G. Reaume (Eds.), Mad matters: A critical reader in Canadian Mad Studies (pp 181-194). Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc.
  9. Cornwall, A., & Schattan Coelho, V. (2007). Spaces for change? The politics of citizen participation in new democratic arenas. London: Zed Books.
  10. Costa, L., Voronka, J., Landry, D., Reid, J., McFarlane, B., Reville, D., & Church, K. (2012). Recovering our stories: A small act of resistance. Studies in Social Justice, 6(1), 85-101.
  11. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977. Pantheon.
  12. Gorman, R., saini, a., Tam, L. Udegbe, O., & Usar, O. (2013). Mad people of color: A manifesto. Asylum, 20(4), 27.
  13. Griffiths, R. (2018). Kindred Minds: A Call for Social Justice, Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.nsun.org.uk/news/bme-mental-health-service-users-launch-manifesto
  14. Hearing Voices Network. (n.d.). Retrieved August 29, 2017, from https://www.hearing-voices.org hooks, bell. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. London: Routledge. hooks, bell. (2014). Teaching to transgress. London: Routledge.
  15. Lukes, S. (1974). Power: A radical view. London and New York: Macmillan.
  16. Lukes, S. (2005). Power: A radical view (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
  17. Millett, K. (1990). The loony-bin trip. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  18. Pascal, J., & Sagan, O. (2016). Cocreation or collusion: The dark side of consumer narrative in qualitative health research. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 26(4), 251-269.
  19. Pembroke, L. (1994). Self-harm: Perspectives from personal experience. London: Survivors Speak Out.