1st Edition
Mental Health and Otherness Intersections between Gender, Race, Class and Age
Based on two decades of research in Brazil and the UK, this book explores the ways in which intersections of gender, race and class affect the positioning of the subject as 'Other' in discourses of health, and how the positioning of the subject as 'Other' has implications for health research and mental health practice.
Drawing on feminist, post-colonial and decolonial studies, psychoanalysis and discourse analysis, Mental Health and Otherness examines the experiences of immigrants, drug users and transsexual people in health and mental health settings, and the ways in which stereotypical understandings can affect the subject.
This book is a study of the discursive construction of ideas about health and mental health in the West and the awareness of processes of othering in clinical practice. It will appeal to scholars in psychology, sociology and cultural studies with an interest in mental health, health care and intersectionality.
Introduction
1. Framing the Other
2. Deconstructing Mental Health
3. On Immigrants
4. On Travestis and Transgender People
5. On Drug Users
Conclusion
Biography
Ilana Mountian is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West of England. Member of the School of Psychoanalysis of the Forum of the Lacanian Field and the Discourse Unit. Author of Cultural Ecstasies: Drugs, Gender and the Social Imaginary (Routledge, 2013).
“Mental Health and Otherness represents over 20 years of empirical work exploring the production of otherness by Ilana Mountian. Bringing together conceptual, embodied and organisational considerations, Mountian draws on her extensive expertise to open up a nuanced and thoughtful approach to how the intersection of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class and health can provide outcomes that resist attempts to manage them. This book contemplates our ability to challenge and transform established perspectives to produce emancipatory possibilities. I would highly recommend this book to those, primarily advanced students and scholars, interested in the processes of minoritisation and how these relate to otherness and our sense making around mental health.” - Rose Capdevilla, Open University
“Mental Health and Otherness offers a groundbreaking examination of how intersections of gender, race, and class shape mental health narratives for marginalized groups. Drawing from her extensive research and clinical practice, Ilana Mountian provides a compelling synthesis of feminist, post-colonial, and psychoanalytic insights, unpacking the stigmatization of immigrants, transgender individuals, and drug users in healthcare. This essential work challenges entrenched medical paradigms, urging readers to reconsider mental health practices and discourses within broader sociocultural frameworks.” - Angel Gordo Lopez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
