Tag Archives: psychiatric disorders

New book series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health” (University of Exeter Press)

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New Book Series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health”

Editors: Dr. Laura A. Cariola (Lead Editor) (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Stefan Ecks (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Billy Lee (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Lisa Mikesell (Rutgers University).

The editors are very pleased to announce the new book series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health” published with the University of Exeter Press. This book series is a unique resource to further knowledge and understanding of mental health from a pluralistically informed linguistic perspective.

Using qualitative and quantitative approaches to language-based analysis, the empirical and theoretical contributions will provide a compelling insight on mental health from a range of perspectives and contexts, including psychotherapeutic communication, public presentations of mental health, literary accounts of lived experiences, and language features associated to specific mental health problems. This interdisciplinary book series will be an essential reference for students, researchers and practitioners in linguistics and communication, education, cognitive science, psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, special needs, medicine, nursing, and medical anthropology.

Scope of the Book Series

The book series is framed in terms of linguistic perspectives that differentiate between communication about mental health (i.e., language performance or use), and the communication of individuals with mental health problems (i.e., language competence or systems) in real-world and research contexts. Such a focus is anticipated to be captured through the following linguistic perspectives: sociolinguistics and sociocultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, literary linguistics and stylistics. These can be applied through a range of language-based methodologies, including qualitative methods (e.g., discourse analysis, conversation analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, thematic analysis), quantitative methods (e.g., corpus-based approaches, quantitative content analysis), and also experimental methods.

Consistent with an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to encourage and strengthen interdisciplinary research of mental health, the book series aims to encompass a wide repertoire different theoretical and philosophical views and a broad range of themes that add significant value to the field of mental health research, including:

  • ‘Understanding of mental health and mental health problems’ by developing empirical and theoretical knowledge of mental health from different perspectives. 
  • ‘Living with mental health problems’ by improving understanding of individuals’ perceptions of living with mental health problems.
  • ‘Effective interventions’ by focussing on the effectiveness of psychological intervention in the treatment and prevention of mental health problems.
  • ‘Wider inequalities in society’ (e.g., issues around gender, ethnicity, poverty sexuality and faith)
  • ‘Vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations’ in society, including drug users, migrants and homeless people.

Call for Book Proposals

The book series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health” is accepting book proposals for monographs and edited volumes. To discuss your book proposals, please contact the book series editors. Book series launch spring 2019.

Book proposal form: UEP – CE Book Proposal Form 2018 (see also http://www.exeterpress.co.uk/for-authors)

Dr. Laura A. Cariola (Lead Editor). Laura.Cariola@ed.ac.uk

Dr. Stefan Ecks. Stefan.Ecks@ed.ac.uk

Dr. Billy Lee. Billy.Lee@ed.ac.uk

Dr. Lisa Mikesell Mikesell.Lisa@gmail.com

New book chapter by Prof. Robert Stolorow

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Stolorow, R. D. (2018). Emotional disturbance, trauma, and authenticity: A phenomenological-contextualist psychoanalytic perspective. In Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness, ed. K. Aho. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield International, pp. 17-25.

The chapter offers a radicalization of phenomenological psychopathology and a critique of psychiatric diagnoses as manifestations of what Robert Stolorow calls “the illusion of metaphysical essences.” He claims that there are no psychiatric entities, only traumatizing contexts.
Here is also a Psychology Today blog post that expands on Robert Stolorow’s view. “Deconstructing Psychiatry’s Every-Expanding Bible”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-relating-existing/201204/deconstructing-psychiatrys-ever-expanding-bible

Dr Stefan Ecks

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Affiliation: University of Edinburgh

Stefan Ecks is co-founder of the Medical Anthropology Programme and a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University. He works on popular and plural professional concepts of body, health, and medicine in South Asia. Recent research explored the dynamics of the Indian pharmaceutical market, changing ideas of mental health in South Asia, pharmaceutical citizenship and access to health care for poorer people. He held visiting fellowships at the University of California at Berkeley, the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg, and the Brocher Foundation at Geneva. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Medical Anthropology Anthropology & Medicine, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and as Area Editor for Anthropology, Archaeology, Health, and Ethics of Research for the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition. Recent publications include the monograph (New York, 2013).

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Email: Stefan.ecks@ed.ac.uk

Prof Lisa Mikesell

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Lisa Mikesell

Affiliation: Rutgers – State University of New Jersey

I use mixed methods to investigate the communication and social practices used to negotiate interactions in a variety of health and mental health contexts. My scholarship consists of three intertwining threads guided by my interest in patient engagement in real world contexts. The first thread is situated in the community and reconceptualizes the notion of communicative competence by centering on what patients do in their everyday lives. Much of this work examines the situated communication practices of individuals diagnosed with neurological and psychiatric disorders to provide a grounded perspective on everyday functioning and community participation.

The second thread is situated in the clinic and is informed by my work in the community reconceptualizing competence. I also examine clinical work practices and clinical reasoning to consider applications of patient-centered constructs such as shared decision making. These first two threads weave together a situated understanding of the “everyday-ness” of an individual’s functioning – which is often neglected or misunderstood – with an understanding of what happens in the clinic.

The final thread considers the societal need for patient participation in the collective sense, namely how to reach and work with patient communities to pose more relevant research questions and develop more sensitive research strategies to better serve patient populations and better assist caregivers and clinicians. My work informs our understanding of best practices, intervention development and implementation and therefore contains a strong applied component, particularly to inquiry in health services.

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