Re-addressing Emotional Anguish: Critical Analysis of a University's Mental Health Services
Advisor:
Titchkosky, Tanya
Department:
Sociology and Equity Studies in Education
Issue Date:
11-Dec-2009
Abstract (summary):
This thesis works from a disability studies perspective to explore the meaning of ‘mental health and illness’ in a university setting. I use the concept of ‘emotional anguish’ as a way to shift the meaning of pain from its taken-for-granted understanding as a medical issue to a more open conception of pain as a category that is always-already an issue of and for interpretation. I use interpretive sociology to show how all conceptions, including conceptions of health, illness, and disability, are socio-historical phenomena, reflecting the culture from which these concepts arise. I use the work of Michel Foucault to discuss the limits of conceiving of emotional anguish as a 'medical problem.' I draw on Sara Ahmed as her work orients to emotions as social phenomena. I conclude by discussing how we might begin to think about emotional anguish as more than a ‘medical problem.’
Permanent Link:
https://hdl.handle.net/1807/18077
Content Type:
Thesis
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