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The Institutional Reaction to Child Mental Illness: Co‐Deviant Labeling
Author(s) -
Suchar Charles S.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb00776.x
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , ideology , mental illness , psychology , service (business) , process (computing) , public relations , social psychology , psychotherapist , political science , mental health , business , law , politics , marketing , computer science , operating system
This paper reports the findings of a study of the bureaucratic processing of emotionally disturbed children. It focuses on the components of bureaucratic decisionmaking and evaluation which determine the biographical documentations of clients constructed by mental hospital staff. Specifically, bureaucratic practioners of child psychotherapy engage in co‐deviant labeling: a labeling process which places responsibility for the child's pathology on the parents and casts the parent into the role of “co‐patient.” Institutional evaluation ostensibly designed for the recipient of service—the child—is extended to the child's parents, most often without their knowledge. Co‐patient labeling is shown to affirm the ideological assumptions of institutional staff.