Voices from the Newspaper Club: Patient Life at a State Psychiatric Hospital (1988-1992)

AbstractThe authors conducted a qualitative analysis of thirty-seven issues ofThe DDU Review, a newsletter produced by residents of the Dual Diagnosis Unit, a residential unit for people who had diagnoses of developmental disability and serious mental illness in the Central State Hospital (Indiana, USA). The analysis of the newsletters produced between September 1988 and June 1992 revealed three  major themes: 1) the mundane; 2) good behavior; and 3) advocacy. Contrary to the authors’ expectations, the discourse of medicalization—such as relations with physicians, diagnoses, and medications—receive little attention. Instead, the patient-journalists focus on prosaic aspects of insti tutional life. The patients used their writing as a form self-definition and advocacy. The authors argue that even though it is tempting to consider the patients’ emphasis on good behavior as evidence of institutional control, internalized discipline, and medicalization, a more nuanced interpretat ion, which focuses on how the patients’ understood their own experiences, is warranted. Researchers must also recognize the ways in whichThe DDU Review reveals the patient-journalists ’ experience of an institutional life that includes non-medical staff (attendants, secretaries, and therapists), varied social relationships among patients, and negotiated freedoms.
Source: Journal of Medical Humanities - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research