Signing on for dirty work

Taking stock of a public psychiatry project from the inside

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2395099
AutoresLeah G Pope (0000-0002-5491-5551, Vera Institute of Justice, autor de correspondencia), L Cubellis (0000-0002-8355-7490, University of Washington), K Hopper (0009-0006-7463-7524, Columbia University)
Año2016
Volumen53
Número4
Páginas506-526
Fecha de publicación2016-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTranscultural Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-4615 • E-ISSN: 1461-7471
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363461516655947
PMID27363853
OpenAlexW2465588582
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas45

As applied anthropologists used to working at arm's length from public psychiatry, we step out of the daily grind to take stock of the challenges of taking on ethnography entrained-harnessed to the implementation of a new program. These include the loss of critical distance, the struggles to negotiate locally viable forms of authority and relevance, the necessity of sustaining a Janus-faced relation with principal players, the urgency of seeing time-sensitive information converted into corrective feedback, and the undeniable attraction of being part of "committed work" with game-changing potential. In so doing, we rework the terms of witnessing and revive an old alternative: that documentary dirty work be reclaimed as a variant of public anthropology, one that transforms the work of application from mere afterthought to integral part of the original inquiry

Psychiatry · Sociology · Engineering · Homelessness and Social Issues · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice