Therapeutic institutions of violence: conceptualising the biographical narratives of mental health service users/survivors accessing long term “treatment” in England

Therapeutic institutions of violence: conceptualising the biographical narratives of mental health service users/survivors accessing long term “treatment” in England Stephen J. Macdonald Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- This paper aims to conceptualise the residential and psychiatric hospital as a space where criminality and social harms can emerge. Because of recent media scandals over the past 10 years concerning privately-owned hospitals, this study examines the lived experiences of service users/survivors, family members and practitioners to examine historic and contemporary encounters of distress and violence in hospital settings. The study consists of 16 biographical accounts exploring issues of dehumanising and harmful practices, such as practices of restraint and rituals of coercive violence. A biographical methodology has been used to analyse the life stories of service users/survivors (n = 9), family members (n = 3) and professional health-care employees (n = 4). Service users/survivors in this study have experienced over 40 years of short-term and long-term periods of hospitalisation. The study discovered that institutional forms of violence had changed after the deinstitutionalisation of care. Practitioners recalled comprehensive experiences of violence within historic mental hospitals, although violence that may be considered criminal appeared to di...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research