Power, Privilege and Knowledge: the Untenable Promise of Co-production in Mental "Health"

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Research
• Sociology of Science
• Critical Psychology

Background:

• Coproduction in mental health is examined through personal experience and historical context.
• The Enlightenment's legacy of "reason" and the "cognitive subject" shapes current practices.
• Existing power dynamics disadvantage service users, particularly racialized individuals deemed lacking reason.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze how Enlightenment notions of reason and whiteness perpetuate inequality in mental health knowledge production.
• To critique the "psy" sciences for instantiating privilege and marginalizing specific knowledge bases.
• To explore challenges and propose alternative approaches for genuine coproduction in mental health.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of personal experiences and historical antecedents of coproduction.
• Critique of knowledge production within "psy" sciences and the survivor movement.
• Examination of the EURIKHA project mapping global knowledge from service users and persons with psychosocial disabilities.

Main Results:

• Enlightenment ideals create power imbalances, inferiorizing knowledge from those deemed "mad" or "racialized mad."
• Modern "psy" sciences and even the survivor movement can replicate white privilege and the privilege of reason.
• Current knowledge production environments, rooted in Eurocentric thinking, prevent authentic coproduction.

Conclusions:

• Genuine coproduction requires dismantling assumptions that privilege reason and whiteness.
• Challenging existing power structures is necessary for equitable knowledge production in mental health.
• The focus should shift towards changing thinking and supporting psychosocial suffering within local contexts.