Open AccessThe Absurdalities of Mental Illness – A Narrative Inquiry into Psychiatric Diagnosis
Author(s) -
Henrik Loodin
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
qualitative sociology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.315
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 1733-8077
DOI - 10.18778/1733-8077.5.1.05
Subject(s) - narrative , argument (complex analysis) , agency (philosophy) , mentally ill , mental illness , sociology , psychoanalysis , civilization , life writing , epistemology , psychology , psychiatry , mental health , social science , literature , law , philosophy , medicine , political science , art
This text examines three life stories about becoming mentally ill and Albert Camus’ fictive narrative “The Stranger”. The main concern is how the social and psychiatry intervenes in the narrative that the interviewees give. Drawing from a reasoning in Michel Foucaults monograph Madness and Civilization and Dorothy Smiths work on relations of ruling the argument in this article is that when becoming mentally ill one is involved in a process of loosing agency in ones own life story. Illustratively with Camus novel the analysis unravel that the interviewees become strangers in their own life story.