Call for Papers: Special Issue of Studies in Social Justice
Mental Health as Social Justice Issue: Beyond Psychocentrism
Edited by: Lacey Croft (York University), Mandi Gray (York University) and Dr. Heidi Rimke (University of Winnipeg)
Summary of Topic
This special edition of Studies in Social Justice seeks to critically explore the complex relationship between social injustice and the pathologization of individuals. In order to do so, focus will be placed on critical approaches to understanding the power of medicine and psychiatry in modern society. The now commonly held view that some people are ab/normal is the consequence and reflection of the growing cultural authority of the human sciences in everyday life. The dominance of the pathological approach can be seen in what Ian Marsh (2010) has referred to as “the compulsory ontology of pathology,” and what Heidi Rimke has critiqued as “psychocentrism,” the view that all human problems are due to a flaw in the bodies/minds/psyches of individuals (Rimke, 2000, 2003, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2011, 2014; Rimke & Hunt, 2002; Rimke & Brock, 2012).
Drawing upon the concept of psychocentrism, this special edition will problematize and critique the pathological approach by interrogating the increasing medicalization and psychiatrization of human life. Thus, this special issue seeks to link private troubles with public issues (Mills, 1959) by considering the ways in which the pathological approach to human problems has become the dominant model within popular culture and the academy alike.
The question of mental and emotional health/illness will be examined within critical theoretical frameworks that seek to interrogate the medical and psychiatric models of the human sciences broadly conceived. Papers in this special issue will explore how the growth of ‘psy’ discourses has become a cornerstone of contemporary Western society. We argue that the proliferation of psychocentrism should be understood within a broader political framework of neoliberalism that hyperresponsibilizes the modern individual as the source of one’s own suffering (and redemption). Such imagery and representations do not only circulate in academic departments they also form research programmes for industry, guides for a variety of institutions, and inform governmental policies. Representations of madness or mental illness have long been a staple of popular cultural media seen in a barrage of movies, documentaries, magazines, fiction and non-fiction books, television shows, newspaper articles and internet sites. The discourses are so taken-for-granted today that it has become compulsory to think of human others as ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal.’
The objective of this issue is thus to examine mental health and illness as a social justice issue by examining social rather than individual deficits. Articles in this issue will shift the focus and analysis from pathological individualism to social relations, social structure, social systems, social practices, social organization, and so forth, as inextricably intertwined human struggle, suffering and pain. We thus welcome papers that utilize critical conceptual frameworks that may include, but are not limited to, post- structural, as well as, feminist, anti-capitalist, post-colonial and critical race theory. Topics may include:
- historical and/or cross-cultural differences in conceptions of normal and abnormal
- the historical sociology of psychiatric institutions
- discourses of mental disease and/or addiction
- criminalization, the courts, corrections
- pathologizing resistance
- racism and mental health
- the political economy and critique of the mental illness and/or psychopharmaceutical industry
- gender, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality and mental health
- bullying and social control
- social factors and stressors contributing to mental and emotional problems
- mad pride and the experience of psychiatric survivors and patients
- the mental health crisis of prisoners
- anti-psychiatry literature (Cooper, Laing, Guatarri, Sedgewick, etc)
- the DSM and social construction of mental pathology
- the organization and effectiveness of treatment programs
- human rights and psychiatric abuses
- mental/emotional health as a social justice issue
- alternatives to psychocentric treatment models
- neoliberalism and self-help practices and discourses
- the stigma and representation of mental health/illness in popular culture
- the sociopolitics of self-harm and suicide
- mental health activism
- medical marijuana and PTSD
- radical trauma work
- discourses of dis/ability
- death, dying, grief and mental health
Length
Articles should be approximately 6,000 words in length (not including references).
Publishing Schedule
- March 6, 2015: deadline for proposals (350-500 word abstract)
- April 6, 2015: notification of acceptance
- July 15, 2015: deadline for first drafts (articles are subject to a double blind peer review process)
Submission
Authors are invited to submit a 350-500 word abstract for consideration including author’s affiliations, contact information, and brief biography by email to the guest editors:
Lacey Croft, York University, Department of Sociology, lcroft@yorku.ca
Mandi Gray, York University, Department of Sociology, graym@yorku.ca
Heidi Rimke, University of Winnipeg, Department of Sociology, h.rimke@uwinnipeg.ca
About the Journal
Studies in Social Justice publishes articles on issues dealing with the social, cultural, economic, political, and philosophical problems associated with the struggle for social justice. This interdisciplinary journal aims to publish work that links theory to social change and the analysis of substantive issues. The journal welcomes heterodox contributions that are critical of established paradigms of inquiry.
The journal focuses on debates that move beyond conventional notions of social justice, and views social justice as a critical concept that is integral in the analysis of policy formation, rights, participation, social movements, and transformations. Social justice is analysed in the context of processes involving nationalism, social and public policy, globalization, diasporas, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, welfare, poverty, war, and other social phenomena. It endeavours to cover questions and debates ranging from governance to democracy, sustainable environments, and human rights, and to introduce new work on pressing issues of social justice throughout the world.
Website: http://brock.scholarsportal.info/journals/index.php/SSJ
References
Marsh, I. (2010). Suicide: Foucault, history and truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1959). The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rimke, H. (2014). Promoting anthropophobia and misanthrophilia: The violent extremism risk assessment (VERA) as case study. In J. Shantz (Ed.), Manufacturing Phobias. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Rimke, H. (2011). The pathological approach to crime: Individually based theories. In K. Kramar (Ed.), Criminology: Critical Canadian Perspectives (pp. 78-92). Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.
Rimke, H. (2010c). Remembering the sociological imagination: Transdisciplinarity, the genealogical method, and epistemological politics. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5(1), 239-254.
Rimke, H. (2010b). Beheading aboard a Greyhound bus: Security politics, bloodlust justice, and the mass consumption of criminalized cannibalism. The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research, 1, 172-192.
Rimke, H. (2010a). Consuming fears: Neoliberal in/securities, cannibalization, and psychopolitics. In J. Shantz (Ed.), Racism and Borders: Representation, Repression, Resistance (pp. 95-113). New York: Algora Publishing.
Rimke, H. (2003). Constituting transgressive interiorities: C19th psychiatric readings of Morally Mad Bodies. In A. Arturo (Ed.), Violence and the Body: Race, Gender and the State (pp. 403-428). Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Rimke, H. (2000). Governing citizens through self-help literature. Cultural Studies, 14(1), 61-78.
Rimke, H., & Brock, D. (2012). The culture of therapy: Psychocentrism in everyday life. In M. Thomas, R. Raby and D. Brock (Eds.), Power and Everyday Practices (pp. 182-202). Toronto: Nelson.
Rimke, H., & Hunt, A. (2002). From sinners to degenerates: The medicalization of morality in the C19th. History of the Human Sciences, 15(1), 59-88.
Recommended Readings
Rimke, H. (2012). Securing injustice: The psychocriminalization of resistance as ‘political violent extremism.’ The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research, 3, 26-39.
Rimke, H. (2002). From sinners to degenerates: The medicalization of morality in the C19th. History of the Human Sciences, 15(1), 59-88.
Ryan, W. (2004). The art of savage discovery: Blaming the victim. In L. Heldke and P. O’Connor (Eds.), Oppression, Privilege and Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism (pp. 275-285). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
