Subjectivity and Critical Mental Health

Book excerpt: Subjectivity and Critical Mental Health: Lessons from Brazil presents and discusses subjectivity as a key concept to challenge the individualized and reified perspective that psychology and mental health studies have traditionally sustained. Situated against the maintenance of hierarchical, unilateral and objectifying relations within mental health, this book is a timely and necessary critical intervention. Drawing on González Rey’s cultural-historical theory of subjectivity, the author constructs points of convergence with critical social psychology, as well as with some critiques from traditional psychiatry based on antipsychiatry. Using empirical findings from original research undertaken in Brazilian community mental health services, a complex articulation between mental health, education and subjective development is proposed by emphasizing a unified research/professional practice, based on an ethics of the subject. Ending by examining possible alternatives for critical mental health that engage with culture and society, the book sets the stage for further re-thinking of research and practice within the critical mental health field. Accessibly written, the interdisciplinary nature of the text should also make this book fascinating reading for students and academics interested in critical psychology, post-colonial studies, mental health and education alike.