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Prisoners signify: a political discourse analysis of mental illness in a prison control unit
Author(s) -
Cloyes Kristin Gates
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
nursing inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.66
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1800
pISSN - 1320-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2007.00369.x
Subject(s) - mental illness , prison , politics , context (archaeology) , agency (philosophy) , discourse analysis , criminology , psychology , psychiatry , sociology , mental health , social psychology , law , political science , social science , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , biology
Prisoners signify: a political discourse analysis of mental illness in a prison control unit Increasingly, US prisoners diagnosed with mental illness are housed in control units, the most restrictive form of confinement in the US prison system. This situation has led to intense debate over the legal, ethical and clinical status of mental illness. This is a semiotic struggle with profound effects, yet most related work treats mental illness as a neutral, individual variable. Few analyses locate mental illness within a larger sociopolitical context. Fewer still focus on discursive practice. None critically analyze the accounts of control unit prisoners, who talk about extreme marginality and risk for victimization. This paper has two aims: (i) to develop a systematic method of analysis that accounts for signification as discourse‐in‐action; and (ii) to show how prisoners’ signification of mental illness articulates agency through and against marginalizing discourse. Political discourse analysis demonstrates how control unit prisoners with psychiatric diagnoses signify mental illness, and articulate safer identifications in the process.