When Lay Knowledge is a Symptom

The Uses of Insight in Psychiatric Interventions

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12967474
AutoresMarie-Pier Rivest (0000-0001-8236-1843, Université de Moncton, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen16
Número1
Páginas245-263
Fecha de publicación2022-01-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaStudies in Social Justice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1911-4788 • E-ISSN: 1911-4788
EditorialBrock University Library (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.26522/ssj.v16i1.2681
OpenAlexW4210464170
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas20

In psychiatry, the concept of “insight” commonly refers to a patient’s judgment that they have a mental illness and need clinical treatment. However, this concept has been criticized because it imposes psychiatric knowledge on the subjective experiences of mental illness and possible interventions. A significant body of literature is critical of mental health interventions; however, insight remains under-explored in this realm. This paper adds to critical analyses of insight by exploring how it is defined and deployed by mental health professionals in an acute inpatient mental health unit in a Canadian general hospital and what disciplinary and epistemic effects it has on patients. To this end, I draw on Foucault’s theories of psychiatric power and Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice to analyze results from an ethnographic study conducted in an inpatient mental health unit. The results show how patients’ resistance to medical compliance is framed by staff as a lack of insight, which reinforces the psychiatric model of mental illness

Compliance (psychology · Mental health · Mental illness · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Psychotherapist · Realm · Resistance (ecology · Unit (ring theory · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Social Psychology