Beyond Otherness: Controllability and Location in Mental Health Service Clients’ Representations of Mental Health Problems

Abstract

This paper focuses on a multimethod qualitative study of the social representations of mental health problems held by clients of the mental health services. Clients appear to represent mental health within representational projects, and, in the course of these projects, situate mental health problems at various points within a twodimensional representational structure comprising controllability and location. It will be suggested that the element of Otherness, so integral to public representations of mental ill health, is therefore significantly more complicated in clients’ representations. Similarly, the interaction between these two dimensions suggests that clients move beyond the professional divide between psychosis and neurosis. The implications of these results will be briefly considered.