Browsing by Author "Uusitalo Lise-Lotte"

Mental illnesses are still nowadays one of the most stigmatising features of a person. The aim of my thesis is to examine marginally categorised mental health clients and the role of experts-by-experience in peer-activities. As a material for my thesis, I had transcribed discussions of three different peer-to-peer sessions held by experts-by-experience. These peer-to-peer sessions were recurring meetings at a Finnish psychiatric hospital. In addition to experts-by-experience, mental health clients were present at these peer-to-peer sessions. The sessions were intended as relaxed discussion sessions, with completely free topics chosen by the participants. The topics could range from everyday shopping to suicidal thoughts. In this thesis, I have examined these transcribed conversations using critical discursive psychology. With this theoretical framework, I paid attention to the mental processes that emerge in the discussions, as well as to the cultural discourses. Although the topics for discussion in the peer sessions were not predetermined, the discussion in all of these sessions often turned to topics related to self-esteem. The clients belittled themselves, felt inferior, and compared themselves to others. Experts-by-experience also made comparisons and called the others, for example, healthy or the general population. The client felt themselves worse than others, because they felt unable to meet certain societal norms. In responding to clients’ self- disparaging turns, experts-by-experience used narratives as examples of their own experiences. The insights in the narratives serve as effective means for experts-by- experience to show clients their own knowledge gained from experience. With this informative and experiential authority, the experts-by-experience taught clients a new social norm, according to which, among other things, working was framed as an unpleasant thing. With such counter-talk in response to the norms of the dominant culture, the experts-by-experience created a line between us and them, and enhanced their own positive group identity. Both of these are important functions for members of marginalised groups with impaired self-esteem.