Den mentala balansen
om föreställningar kring psykisk ohälsa
The purpose of this essay is to examine the everyday beliefs about mental illness surrounding the disease and how these are expressed and affects the sick life and identity. The focus is on the sick perspective, where a concept of norms, normalization and taboo forms a basis in the use of materials, which here consists of qualitative interviews and Internet forums. This is analyzed and then discussed with the help from structuralism and poststructuralism approach, where I mainly refer to the social anthropologist Mary Douglas, ethnologist Lars-Eric Jönsson and philosopher Michael Foucault. In the discussion vented even historical aspects of the subject and how these might have followed in our time and how beliefs about mental illness is created and maintained by the norms within a society / culture including the sick.