Skip to main content

“I Don’t Have Time for an Emotional Life”: Marginalization, Dependency and Melancholic Suspension in Disability

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry volume 41, pages 142–160 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Social scientific analyses of inequality inform interventions ranging from the material and political to the personal and psychological. At the extremes of this continuum, Marxian militants view the exploration of the inner lives of oppressed people as irrelevant to liberation, while psychoanalysts bemoan the naïveté of “depsychologized” conceptions of the social subject. While both approaches have been applied to disability inequality, an historical materialist view has dominated the discipline of disability studies, where attention has only recently turned to psychological aspects of oppression. This article provides a brief introduction to some key aspects of the social and economic marginalization experienced globally by the disability minority. Thereafter, the complex debates around materialist and psychological accounts of, and interventions upon, racism and disablism are explored and compared, with particular reference to the place of grief and loss in disability discourse. The clinical fragment which forms the title of this paper introduces an engagement with Cheng’s model of racial melancholia, its conceptual origins and explanatory power. The balance of the paper considers how Cheng’s work may help illuminate how it is that disability inequality, like that of race, may remain an obstinate reality notwithstanding material interventions aimed at overturning it.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Abberley, P. (1993). Disabled people and “normality”. In J. Swain, V. Finkelstein, S. French, and M. Oliver (Eds.), Disabling barriers – enabling environments (pp. 107-115). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, C., M. Oliver, and L. Barton. (2002). Introduction. In C. Barnes, M. Oliver and L. Barton (Eds.), Disability studies today (pp. 1-17). Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biko, S. (1978). I write what I like. London: The Bowerdean Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1997). The psychic life of power: Theories in subjection. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charlton, J. (1998). Nothing about us without us: Disability oppression and empowerment. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, A. A. (2000). The melancholy of race: Psychoanalysis, assimilation, and hidden grief. Berkeley: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crow, L. (1996). Including all our lives: Renewing the social model of disability. In J. Morris (Ed.). Encounters with strangers: Feminism and disability (pp. 136-165). London: The Women’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleridge, P. (1993). Disability, liberation, and development. Oxford: Oxfam.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davids, M. F. (1996). Frantz Fanon: The struggle for inner freedom. Free Associations, 6(38), 205-234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, L. J. (2002). Bending over backwards: Disability, dismodernism and other difficult positions. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, C., and R. Imrie. (2003). Disability and bodies as bearers of value. Sociology, 37(2), 239-256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eng, D. L., and S. Han. (2000). A dialogue on racial melancholia. Psychoanalytic dialogues, 10, 667-700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. 1952/1986 Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press.

  • Fanon, F. 1963/2004 The Wretched of the Earth. (R. Philcox, Trans.) New York: Grove Press. (Original Work Published 1963).

  • Ferguson, P. M. (2001). Mapping the family: Disability studies and the exploration of parental response to disability. In G. Albrecht, K. Seelman, and M. Bury (Eds.), Handbook of disability studies (pp. 373-395). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, V. 1996 Outside, Inside Out. Coalition. April, 30–36.

  • Finkelstein, V., and S. French. (1993). Towards a psychology of disability. In J. Swain, V. Finkelstein, S. French, and M. Oliver (Eds.), Disabling barriers – enabling environments (pp. 26-33). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1979 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.

  • Fraser, N. (2000). Rethinking recognition. New Left Review, 3, 107-120.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, S. (1993). “Can you see the rainbow?” The roots of denial. In J. Swain, V. Finkelstein, S. French, and M. Oliver (Eds.), Disabling barriers – enabling environments (pp. 69-77). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. 1917 Mourning and Melancholia. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914–1916): On the History of the Psycho-analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, pp. 237–258.

  • Frosh, S. (1989). Psychoanalysis and racism. In B. Richards (Ed.), Crises of the self: Further essays on psychoanalysis and politics (pp. 229-244). London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (2009). Staring. How we look. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, C. J. (2001). Divided understandings: The social experience of disability. In G. Albrecht, K. Seelman, and M. Bury (Eds.), Handbook of disability studies (pp. 351-372). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodley, D. (2014). Dis/ability studies: Theorizing disablism and ableism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodley, D., B. Hughes, and L. Davis. (Eds.). (2012). Disability and social theory: New developments and directions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grech, S. (2009). Disability, poverty and development: critical reflections on the majority world debate. Disability & Society, 24(6), 771-784.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gump, J. P. (2010). Reality matters: The shadow of trauma on African American subjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27, 42-54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, H. (1997). An agenda for citizens with disabilities: Pursuing identity and empowerment. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 9, 31-37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, H. (2002). Academic debates and political advocacy: The US disability movement. In C. Barnes, M. Oliver, and L. Barton (Eds.), Disability studies today (pp. 162-189). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hevey, D. (1992). The creatures time forgot: Photography and disability imagery. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden, C., and P. Beresford. (2002). Globalisation and disability. In C. Barnes, M. Oliver, and L. Barton (Eds.), Disability studies today (pp. 190-209). Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoggett, P. (1992). Partisans in an uncertain world: The psychoanalysis of engagement. London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, B. (2009). Wounded/monstrous/abject: A critique of the disabled body in the sociological imaginary. Disability & Society, 24(4), 399-410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Husum, H., and O. Edvardsen. (2011). Poverty as trauma: Methodological problems when reality gets ugly. In B. Ingstad and A. Eide (Eds.). Disability and poverty: A global challenge (pp. 207-224). Bristol: The Policy Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ingstad, B., and A. Eide. (Eds.). (2011). Disability and poverty: A global challenge. Bristol: The Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A., V. Das, and M. Lock. (1997). Social suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (1997). Race in psychoanalytic space. Gender and psychoanalysis, 2, 157-172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (2000). Racial enactments in dynamic treatment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10, 639-653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longmore, P. K. (1997). Conspicuous Contribution and American Cultural Dilemmas: Telethon Rituals of Cleansing and Renewal. In D. T. Mitchell and S. L. Snyder (Eds.), The body and physical difference: Discourses of disability (pp. 134-153). Detroit: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonsdale, S. (1990). Women and disability: The experience of physical disability among women. London: McMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marks, D. (1999). Disability: Controversial debates and psychosocial perspectives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metts, R.L. 2000 Disability Issues, Trends and Recommendations for the World Bank. Discussion Paper No 0007. Washington, DC: World Bank.

  • Morris, J. (1989). Able lives. London: The Women’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, R. F. (1987). The body silent. New York: Henry Holt and Company Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, J. (1995). Counselling disabled people: A counsellor’s perspective. Disability & Society, 10, 261-279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, M., and Barnes, C. (2012). The new politics of disablement. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Olkin, R. (1999). What psychotherapists should know about disability. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravaud, J. F., and H. J. Stiker, 2001). Inclusion/exclusion: An analysis of historical and cultural meanings. In G. Albrecht, K. Seelman, and M. Bury (Eds.), Handbook of disability studies (pp. 490-512). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Roulstone, A., and H. Mason-Bish (Eds.). (2012). Disability, hate crime and violence. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schriner, K. (2001). A disability studies perspective on employment issues and policies for disabled people: an international view. In G. Albrecht, K. Seelman, and M. Bury (Eds.), Handbook of disability studies (pp. 642-662). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Scotch, R. (1988). Disability as the basis for a social movement: Advocacy and the politics of definition. Journal of Social Issues, 44(1), 159-172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, R. (1969). The making of blind men: A study of adult socialisation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakespeare, T. (2006). Disability rights and wrongs. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakespeare, T. (2014). Disability rights and wrongs revisited (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiker, H.J. 1982 A History of Disability. (W. Sayers, Trans.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

  • Swain, J., V. Finkelstein, S. French, and M. Oliver (Eds.). (1993). Disabling barriers – enabling environments. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swain, J., and S. French. (2000). Towards an affirmation model of disability. Disability & Society, 15(4), 569-582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, J., and S. French. (2008). Affirming identity. In J. Swain and S. French (Eds.), Disability on equal terms (pp. 65-78). London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, J., S. French, C. Barnes, and C. Thomas. (2013). Disabling barriers – enabling environments (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and alterity: A particular history of the senses. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. (1999). Female forms: Experiencing and understanding disability. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. (2007). Sociologies of disability and illness: Contested ideas in disability studies and medical sociology. London: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, K. R. and J. Siller. (1999). Object loss, mourning, and adjustment to disability. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 16(2), 179-197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watermeyer, B. (2009). Claiming loss in disability. Disability & Society, 24(1), 91-102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watermeyer, B. 2012a Is it Possible to Create a Politically Engaged, Contextual Psychology of Disability? Disability and Society, 27(2): 161–174.

  • Watermeyer, B. 2012b Disability and Countertransference in Group Psychotherapy: Connecting Social Oppression with the Clinical Frame. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 62(3): 393–417.

  • Watermeyer, B. (2013). Towards a contextual psychology of disablism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watermeyer, B. (2014). Disability and loss: The psychological commodification of identity. Psychology Journal, 11(2), 99-107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watermeyer, B., and S. Mall in press Disablism, Deprivation and Selfhood: Imagining the Subjective Nature of Oppression in Worlds of Poverty. In Disability in the Global South: The Critical Handbook. S. Grech and K. Soldatic, eds. New York: Springer.

  • Watermeyer, B., and L. Swartz. (2008). Conceptualising the psycho-emotional aspects of disability and impairment: The distortion of personal and psychic boundaries. Disability & Society, 23(6), 599-610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeo R, K Moore (2003). Including disabled people in poverty reduction work: “Nothing about us, without us”. World Development (31)3, pp 571-590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zizek, S. (1990). Eastern Europe’s republics of Gilead. New Left Review, 183, 50-62.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Disability Studies Programme, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town, F45 Old Main Building, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa

    Brian Watermeyer

Authors
  1. Brian Watermeyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Watermeyer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Watermeyer, B. “I Don’t Have Time for an Emotional Life”: Marginalization, Dependency and Melancholic Suspension in Disability. Cult Med Psychiatry 41, 142–160 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-016-9503-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-016-9503-x

Keywords

  • Disability
  • Marginalization
  • Melancholic suspension
  • Psychoanalytic
  • South Africa