A FRAMEWORK FOR CRITICAL DISCOURSE STUDIES ON MENTAL HEALTH

Abstract

In this article, I present a framework for critical discourse studies on mental health. By relying on principles belonging to Critical Discourse Studies (Flowerdew & Richardson, 2018; van Leeuwen, 2008; Fairclough, 2018; 2001), and the Sociology of Health (Caponi, 2014; Martínez-Hernáez, 2014; Mitjavila, 2015; Rose & Abi-Rached, 2014), at first I introduce a brief contextualization of Critical Discourse Studies as a field of research and establish connections between this field and mental health studies. In the sequence, I present a framework divided into 8 stages focused on the investigation of social practices involving mental health. These stages are then applied to the analysis of a judicial decision produced by the Superior Court of Justice in Brazil involving the diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. The analysis reveals ADHD has a neuropolitical function and that authority related to the diagnosis is vested in medical expertise only, despite the lack of biological markers for it.