Care of the Self as a Practice of Resistance in Mental Health

Abstract

when it comes to mental health, the medicalization of our everyday lives can diminish the autonomy that we hold over our health and care. Considering medicalization as an artefact through which power is exerted via biopolitics it is, however, possible to establish practices of resistance against it. Taking as starting point the testimonies of nine participants considered to be mentally ill, we reflect the relationship between subject and health-care system established through the care of the self as a practice of resistance when it comes to mental health.

Keywords

• care of the self
• autonomy
• mental health
• critical discourse analysis
• life story interview