Par Florent Poupart, Hélène Constant
Summary:
Psychiatric care practices have long been inspired by humanist conceptions of psychological life, which attribute an anthropological depth to human beings and an intentionality to symptoms. Over the last few decades, however, we have seen a shift in care practices towards a re-educational approach. We propose here to link this development with the emergence in society of ideological identity movements, characterised by their psychophobia and distrust of unconscious psychic life. Drawing on psychoanalysis, we look at the extent to which these ideologies embody a two-dimensional anthropological conception: a human being with no psychic depth or internal conflict, perfectly identified with his discourse. The unconscious is denounced as the source of discrimination. It must therefore be condemned and neutralised, in favour of an ideal of transparency, purity and homogeneity. Secondly, we argue that this generalised psychophobia has inspired normative and rehabilitative practices in mental health over the last half-century. In particular, we consider psycho-education of psychotic patients, the recovery approach to schizophrenia, and clinical practices that claim to be militantly committed, to the detriment of neutrality and unconditional acceptance of subjectivity. Finally, we recall how reference to a clinical posture inherited from psychoanalysis can provide mental health professionals with ethical benchmarks for thinking about their practices, against a totalizing temptation.
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