“Treat us like people and we’ll respond like people”: Exploring future research areas for mental health system survivors

Abstract

This project aimed to examine the social position of people diagnosed with mental health problems, with particular reference to the relevance of the term ‘disability’ to their experience. With a view to achieving this, the study began with a theoretical analysis of the arguments of System Survivors, who contest that the situation and perspective of people with mental health diagnoses is so different from that of physically disabled people that their inclusion in this category further oppresses them. Socially critical theories of disability were also assessed with a view to assessing the possibility of cohesion. From this basis, in-depth interviews were carried out with seven people diagnosed with mental health problems. It was found that a massive divergence existed between the views of people interviewed and the ideas expressed in the literature. While Survivor literature is, if anything, more radically socially critical than disabilities discourse, ideas emerging from interviews were very grounded in individualised, medical understandings of disability and illness. It was concluded that this is likely to be because of a failure to grapple with the nature and implications of mental distress and that future research must endeavour to develop theories which are more relevant to people experiencing mental health problems, while maintaining a commitment to identifying and challenging oppression, particularly internalised oppression.