I think it's so important to realize that basically everything can be captured by nasty elites. These ideas - people go on sick leave for nothing, young snowflakes imagine that they have a mental problem because they've never learnt to deal with the natural hardships of life, etc - are pushed in Sweden too. But there was also this time when our horrible racist right-wing government suggested that maybe young men of colour living in poor and crime-ridden neighbourhoods are restless and a nuisance because of ADHD - couldn't we send psychiatrists out there, do some kind of quick diagnosis of the lot, and then medicate them into a nicer demeanor? Obvs actual medical professionals quickly shut down this ridiculous idea.
You say that it is not all about Davies, he is just an emblem / symbol. To me it was all about Davies and some other individuals with the odd organisation thrown in. That's not Marxist to me because it is again individualistic and not structural. We have had the conversation about post-surplus value economies before. The battle being fought is in the context of a knowledge economy (and precarity) and Marx was writing about industrial capitalism
Power and knowledge are intertwined and these individuals are positioned and shaped at that level. Coming from a survivor standpoint one thing that strikes me is that the boundaries of 'Otherness' have shifted pace Sunak's attack on disabled people generally. Some people are actively seeking out diagnoses of autism or ADHD. To me they are re-coding structural violence in psychiatric terms. What is excluded is experiences like hearing voices, spending or giving away all your money to the point of destitution, believing things outside the remit of cultural norms. I know people who won't go outside or use their real name anywhere for fear of the DWP. They are in a total bind because they need psychiatric sanction to claim at all yet have avoided psychiatry because of its harms. Any narrative can be re-coded for political ends which is what Sunak has done
This is NOT a defence of critical psychiatry; it's just a precis of the epistemic injustice at the hermeneutic level done to us since the Western Enlightenment but obviously in different forms historically. Critical psychiatrists perpetuate it.
I can't scroll down so cannot check what I have written
Thus guest post is immensely helpful in framing important issues in critical psychiatry and disability rights
I think it's so important to realize that basically everything can be captured by nasty elites. These ideas - people go on sick leave for nothing, young snowflakes imagine that they have a mental problem because they've never learnt to deal with the natural hardships of life, etc - are pushed in Sweden too. But there was also this time when our horrible racist right-wing government suggested that maybe young men of colour living in poor and crime-ridden neighbourhoods are restless and a nuisance because of ADHD - couldn't we send psychiatrists out there, do some kind of quick diagnosis of the lot, and then medicate them into a nicer demeanor? Obvs actual medical professionals quickly shut down this ridiculous idea.
Great post.
Interesting read Robert
You say that it is not all about Davies, he is just an emblem / symbol. To me it was all about Davies and some other individuals with the odd organisation thrown in. That's not Marxist to me because it is again individualistic and not structural. We have had the conversation about post-surplus value economies before. The battle being fought is in the context of a knowledge economy (and precarity) and Marx was writing about industrial capitalism
Power and knowledge are intertwined and these individuals are positioned and shaped at that level. Coming from a survivor standpoint one thing that strikes me is that the boundaries of 'Otherness' have shifted pace Sunak's attack on disabled people generally. Some people are actively seeking out diagnoses of autism or ADHD. To me they are re-coding structural violence in psychiatric terms. What is excluded is experiences like hearing voices, spending or giving away all your money to the point of destitution, believing things outside the remit of cultural norms. I know people who won't go outside or use their real name anywhere for fear of the DWP. They are in a total bind because they need psychiatric sanction to claim at all yet have avoided psychiatry because of its harms. Any narrative can be re-coded for political ends which is what Sunak has done
This is NOT a defence of critical psychiatry; it's just a precis of the epistemic injustice at the hermeneutic level done to us since the Western Enlightenment but obviously in different forms historically. Critical psychiatrists perpetuate it.
I can't scroll down so cannot check what I have written
Sorry
As usual an incisive, thoughtful, and fair critique. I wish more left supporters of Davies were cognizant of (or stopped ignoring) the issues.