Title

Psychiatry In The Labyrinth: Deconstructing Deviancy

Abstract

Deviancy is a key concept in psychiatry and other therapeutic disciplines, because it dramatizes the way in which they depend on the establishment of norms, in order to justify their theory and practice. The writings of Derrida as well as Goethe provide a different view: that “deviation” from a “norm” can be fundamentally important to the well-being of the norm. Thus deviancy can be viewed not as something to be “corrected” but rather as a creative possibility to be encouraged and shaped in productive ways. As a case of “deviancy” we have selected the writings of John Perceval, whose Narrative provides a critique of the men-tal-health establishment of his day, particularly the asylum, and offers an alternative to 19th-century views of “lunacy.” We see his “schizophrenic” commentary on his “psychosis” and its treatment as analogous to the deconstructive, “schizophrenic” discourse of postmodernity which is similarly critical of the reigning, modernist psychiatric order. © 1993, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

3-1-1993

Publication Title

The Humanistic Psychologist

Volume

21

Issue

1

Number of Pages

65-80

Document Type

Article

Identifier

scopus

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/08873267.1993.9976907

Socpus ID

84861920642 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84861920642

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