how we feel about, experience & interpret our lives

1. ‘It’s a hearts & minds thing’Mental health & the psychologising ofsocial justice in ScotlandLynne FriedliCentre for Human EcologyGlasgow23rd April 2014

2. (Mental)... Wellbeing...... how we feel about, experience & interpret our lives It’s a hearts and minds thing.... lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

3. Framing and erasure solutions to the widening gap in health inequalities will need to take into account early life & personality, as well as the more the classically recognised factors such as smoking, diet, cholesterol & blood pressure if we are to stand a chance of narrowing the gap in health by improving the health of those most in need. GCPH ‘assets’ 2014 • Construction of psychological ideal • Poor outcomes are a result of psychological deficit • Erasure of economic realities & social determinants • Compulsory positive affect & psychological coercion lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

4. Strengths based lexicon ‘...the development of their own capabilities to manage their way out of poverty’ Scottish Government 2011 New dictionary Class Struggle co-production Fight for your rights count your assets Rage sense of coherence Social security conditionality Solidarity recoil from dependency Justice survival of fittest Assets/Resilience/Recovery; • agency; efficacy; aspiration • self-reliance, discipline, entrepreneurial, optimistic • Sense of coherence (strengths not deficits); hope; • well note replaces sick note; self-care lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

5. ‘Recovery journey’ extended to all citizens ‘who matters and who does not, who is disposable and who is not’ AchilleMbembe Building psychological resilience and wellbeing for those who are still claiming after 8 weeks through expressive writing & strengths identification. ‘failure to comply may result in loss of benefits’ (Psychometric testing for JSA claimants) ‘.’ Rooting out dependency and need lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

6. Is recovery about being well enough to be thrown into the world of sharks?  Where is the recovery model for the society of sharks? Dolly Sen Source: http://mentalhealthrecovery.omeka.net/exhibits/show/dollysen/isrecoverytherightword lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

7. ‘Grace beats karma’ a paradox.... As material inequalities grow, so the pursuit of non material explanations proliferates Picture source: Dolly Sen My story is on my skin http://mentalhealthrecovery.omeka.net/items/show/90 lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

8. I own, therefore I am.... Source: Banksy– graffiti, London, England lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

9. Capabilities & fundamental entitlements They speak to the resistance of deprived communities to being pathologised, criminalised, ostracised; to being described in public health reports in terms of multiple deficits and disorders: ‘chaotic, unengaged, and disaffected’ Friedli 2013 Source: Nussbaum 2011

10. The holy grail of positive affect Many Americans cannot stand to be unhappy, cannot stand to grieve and cannot stand to look at poverty or the real damages of war. One could argue that this is a larger problem than the problem of excessive unhappiness. Martha Nussbaum lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

11. Personality and health in Glasgow 'the identification of individuals whose personality styles render them vulnerable to particular health risks‘ Millar et al 2013 p.8 ‘to establish if those who need to take on board lifestyle messages (weight loss, physical activity) are in a position affectively and intellectually to receive them.’ Velupillai et al 2008 p2 ‘(brain) that is less robust and less efficient in information processing ... some evidence of the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and brain network topology.’Krishnadas et al 2013 GCPH pSoBid Study http://www.gcph.co.uk/assets/0000/4244/pSoBid_FINAL_REPORT_2013_update_February2014.pdf

12. lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

13. A4e Engage Module ‘to appreciate the importance of mindset to employers’ - students will learn how to develop the right mindset which will appeal to employers’ • assertiveness, confidence, benefits of work, motivation, enhance your mood My Journey ‘job goal’ – e.g. to work in a retail shop as an assistant, full time, for a wage of £11,000 Picture source: Johnny Void lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

14. Substitution of outcomes ‘Evidence from this evaluation suggests that while there was no significant difference in job outcomes …. the OCM & CAP trailblazer strands were successful in achieving soft outcomes such as increases in motivation, confidence, job-seeking behaviour and a positive change in attitudes to work. These softer impacts may yet translate into job outcomes and sign off from JSA.’ Rahim et al (2012) Evaluation of SVLTU DWP Research Summary (emphasis added) lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

15. The flexible labour market lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

16. What we all need.... To be: • Heard • Believed • Understood • Respected Picture Source: http://sarahdrummond.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/an-assets-alliance-scotland/ lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

17. holding onto radical roots.. Negativity enacts the dissent without which politics disappears. Berlant & Edelman 2014 Welcoming the spectres of disability.... • Robert McRuer • Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

18. To respect strength, never power Arundhati Roy • Declaration of Intent of the Mental Patients Union • We proclaim the dignity of society's so-called mental patients. • We challenge repressive psychiatric practice &its ill-defined concepts of 'mental illness' • We state that the present appalling situation in 'mental health' primarily arises from acute problems in housing, unemployment & social inequality • Mental patients in our society are treated as people with no human rights

19. lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com

20. So many times will you be killedso many will you reviveso many years will you spenddespairing.And at that moment of shipwreckand of darknesssomeone will rescue youto go on singing. Singing in the sunlike the Cicada....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_-kUkP998 María Elena Walsh: Como la cigarra /LiketheCicada

21. lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com Image: Barbara Ehrenreich https://t.co/SB2gQlrMVX

22. Select bibliography – reading, influences, acknowledgements http://www.boycottworkfare.org/; Robert Stearn, Warren Clark, Johnny Void Imogen Tyler Revolting subjects:Social Abjection BerlantLauren Cruel Optimism Differences 17, 5 (2006): 21-36; and New Formations (2008; longer version) Slow Death in Critical Inquiry 33 (Summer 2007): 754-780 Mel Y Chen Animacies Krieger, N. 2011. Epidemiology and the People’s Health: Theory and Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nussbaum, M. 2011. Creating Capabilities – The Human Development Approach Cambridge Massachussets: Harvard University Press Shildrick T et al Poverty and Insecurity: Life in low-pay, No-pay Britain (Studies in Poverty, Inequality & Social Exclusion Series... Howell A & Veronka J The Politics of Resilience & recovery in mental health care http://www.academia.edu/3366809/Introduction_The_Politics_of_Resilience_and_Recovery_in_Mental_Health_Care Anne-Emanuelle, Birn. 2009. “Making it Politic(al): Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health.” Social Medicine 4: 166–182. lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com