Journal ArticleDOI
Constructing normality: a discourse analysis of the DSM-IV
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TLDR
This study proposes that the definition and criteria for mental disorder are based on assumptions about normal behaviour that relate to productivity, unity, moderation and rationality.Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to explore how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) 1994, (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) defines mental disorder and the theoretical assumptions upon which this is based. The analysis examines how the current definition has been constructed and what the criteria for specific mental disorders suggest about what is regarded as normal. The method employed for the research was a critical discourse analysis. This critical approach to research is primarily concerned with analysis of the use of language and the reproduction of dominant belief systems in discourse. It involves systematic and repeated readings of the DSM-IV (1994) to examine what evidence was employed by the text to substantiate its definition of mental disorder and how in the process some assumptions are made about what constitutes normality. This study challenges a central assumption in the DSM-IV’s (1994) definition: that it is a pattern or syndrome ‘that occurs in an individual’. The proposal that it occurs in an individual implies that it is a consequence of faulty individual functioning. This effectively excludes the social and cultural context in which experiences occur and ignores the role of discourse in shaping subjectivity and social relations. This study proposes that the definition and criteria for mental disorder are based on assumptions about normal behaviour that relate to productivity, unity, moderation and rationality. The influence of this authoritative image of normality pervades many areas of social life and pathologises experiences that could be regarded as responses to life events.read more
Citations
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Discourse analysis: towards an understanding of its place in nursing
TL;DR: Discourse analysis can make a contribution to the development of nursing knowledge by providing a research strategy to examine dominant discourses that influence nursing practice.
Journal ArticleDOI
Obesity: Is it a mental disorder?
TL;DR: Findings are too preliminary to support classification of obesity as a mental disorder in DSM-V, but there is evidence that obesity is related to mental disorder and many of the medications used to treat psychiatric illness.
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From ABCs to ADHD: the role of schooling in the construction of behaviour disorder and production of disorderly objects
TL;DR: The authors reviewed a sample of the literature surrounding ADHD, in order to question the function of this absence and, ultimately, make an argument for an interrogation of the school as a site for the production of disorderly objects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Deconstructing risk assessment and management in mental health nursing.
Marie Crowe,Dave Carlyle +1 more
TL;DR: The mental health nursing profession needs to examine carefully its socially mandated role as guardians of those who pose a risk to others to ensure that its practice represents its espoused therapeutic responsibilities.
Journal ArticleDOI
Never good enough--part 1: Shame or borderline personality disorder?
TL;DR: An argument is developed that shame is an integral but neglected feature in the experiences of mental distress that are characteristic of BPD and the influence of shame may assist mental health nurses to provide mental health nursing care that best meets the needs of women experiencing these symptoms.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
Book
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
TL;DR: Foucault shows the development of the Western system of prisons, police organizations, administrative and legal hierarchies for social control and the growth of disciplinary society as a whole as discussed by the authors.
Book
Discourse and social change
TL;DR: This article proposed a social theory of discourse intertextuality text analysis -constructing social relations and "the self", constructing social reality discourse and social change in contemporary society doing discourse analysis.