Short Abstract:

By examining the rise of community psychiatry and alternative therapies for mental health, this panel seeks to explore what ideas of mental illness, personhood, and environment these practices help advance, and how they may be transforming the way people envision psychological health.

Long Abstract:

As the era of mental hospitals is closing in for most parts of the world, many societies are witnessing a rise of community psychiatry and alternative therapies for mental health. Despite the prevailing concern that the forces of global mental health might homogenize psychiatric care via a biomedical model, these areas have instead seen flourishing therapeutic cultures that range from various forms of self-help group, "self-study" programs for those who want to do research on their mental health, meditation practices, as well as art and talk therapies that constitute vibrant therapeutic landscapes in urban centers. While some of these remain within a more commercialized domain, alongside established psychiatric institutions, others, such as self-study groups have begun to formally challenge the received knowledge of psychiatry, instead asserting their own ideas about the causes of mental illness and recovery. We investigate these new practices in the context of a radical rethinking of social and environmental issues, emblemized by an interest in "user-controlled research" and "coproduction" of health and mental health services. We also illuminate growing trends to see mental health care as a social welfare problem, to remove distinctions between professionals and recipients, and to rethink these services as "doing for" rather than "doing to." By mapping out the emerging therapeutic cultures with one focus on East Asia but not limited to it, this panel seeks to investigate what ideas of mental illness, personhood, and environment these practices help advance, and how they may be transforming the way people envision psychological health.