Listening to Voices: Patient Experience and the Meanings of Mental Illness

Abstract

This chapter proceeds from the observation that the voices of the mentally ill have been inappropriately neglected both by social scientists and mental health practitioners. After tracing how the triumph of biological psychiatry in recent decades has led to a disproportionate focus on patients’ symptoms rather than stories, we consider the political significance of listening well to individual accounts. We draw inspiration from feminist, critical race, and disability theories to illustrate how patients’ stories illuminate the nature of personal suffering as well as the social structures that can cause or amplify such suffering. While personal memoirs can be a valuable source for understanding the subjective experience of mental illness, we maintain that sociological writing based on a range of voices uncovers broader regularities in the evolution of illness experiences. To illustrate this point, we consider how qualitative research can powerfully articulate the connection between illness careers and patterned identity transformations. The chapter closes with a call for more studies on how different intersections of multiple social locations shape diverse mental illness experiences and associated meanings.