‘Patient’ voices, social movements and the habitus; how psychiatric survivors ‘speak out’

What is the ‘voice’ of the mental health ‘user’? This paper seeks to address this question through the presentation of a detailed comparative analysis of two anthologies written by people living with mental ‘illness’ in the 1950s and 1990s. Using a narrative-style qualitative analysis, the structure and content of the two anthologies is explored. The analysis illustrates the way in which the ‘voice’ of the mental patient in the 1950s was very different to that of today. The paper then aims to provide a theoretical explanation that accounts for this transformation of voice. Appropriating theoretical concepts from phenomenology and sociology, in particular, Bourdieuʹs concept of ‘habitus’, the paper explores the way in which the ‘personal’ voice of the mental patient is formulated in dialogical relation to wider public and collective movements. These, in turn, connect to broader transformations in the social, economic and health ‘fields’.