Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mental Ill Health, Recovery and the Family Assemblage

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The recovery approach is now among the most influential paradigms shaping mental health policy and practice across the English-speaking world. While recovery is normally presented as a deeply personal process, critics have challenged the individualism underpinning this view. A growing literature on “family recovery” explores the ways in which people, especially parents with mental ill health, can find it impossible to separate their own recovery experiences from the processes of family life. While sympathetic to this literature, we argue that it remains limited by its anthropocentricity, and therefore struggles to account for the varied human and nonhuman entities and forces involved in the creation and maintenance of family life. The current analysis is based on an ethnographic study conducted in Australia, which focused on families in which the father experiences mental ill health. We employ the emerging concept of the “family assemblage” to explore how the material, social, discursive and affective components of family life enabled and impeded these fathers’ recovery trajectories. Viewing families as heterogeneous assemblages allows for novel insights into some of the most basic aspects of recovery, challenging existing conceptions of the roles and significance of emotion, identity and agency in the family recovery process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acuto, Michele, and Simon Curtis. 2014. Reassembling international theory: Assemblage thinking and international relations (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Adeponle, Ademola, Rob Whitley, and Laurence Kirmayer. 2012. ‘Cultural contexts and constructions of recovery.’ in A. Rudnick (ed.), Recovery of people with mental illness: Philosophical and related perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, Jessica, Reuben Balfour, Ruth Bell, and Michael Marmot. 2014. ‘Social Determinants of Mental Health’, International Review of Psychiatry, 26: 392-407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Ben. 2006. ‘Becoming and being hopeful: Towards a theory of affect’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24: 733-52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Ben, and Colin McFarlane. 2011. ‘Assemblage and geography’, Area, 43: 124-27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andresen, Retta, Lindsay Oades, and Peter Caputi. 2011. Psychological Recovery: Beyond Mental Illness (Sydney: Wiley Blackwell).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, Gavin, Sandra Chen, and Samantha Myers. 2014. ‘The ‘taking place’ of health and wellbeing: Towards non-representational theory’, Social Science and Medicine, 108: 210-22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, William. 1993. ‘Recovery from mental illness: The guiding vision of the mental health service system in the 1990s’, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 16: 11-24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant matter: A political ontology of things (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlyn, Claire, Sarah Wise, and Grace Soriano 2008 Engaging Fathers in Child and Family Services: Participation, Perceptions and Good Practice. In Canberra: National Evaluation Consortium (Social Policy Research Centre, at The University of New South Wales, and The Australian Institute of Family Studies).

  • Bernard, H. Russell, and Gery Ryan. 2010. Analyzing Qualitative Data: Systematic Approaches (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, Rosi. 2013. The Posthuman (Polity Press: Cambridge and Malden).

    Google Scholar 

  • Braslow, Joel 2013 The manufacture of recovery. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9:781-809.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Steve, and Paul Stenner. 2001. ‘Being affected: Spinoza and the psychology of emotion’, International journal of group tensions, 30: 81-105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, Ian, and Nicholas Thoburn (ed.). 2008. Deleuze and politics (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Adele 2005 Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DeLanda, Manuel 2006 A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. London: Continuum.

  • Deleuze, Gilles. 1994. Difference and Repetition (London: Athlone Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. 1988. A thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (London: Athlone Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dilkes-Frayne, Ella. 2016. ‘Drugs at the campsite: Socio-spatial relations and drug use at music festivals’, International Journal of Drug Policy, 33: 27-35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duff, Cameron. 2012. ‘Exploring the role of ‘enabling places’ in promoting recovery from mental illness: A qualitative test of a relational model’, Health and Place, 16: 1388-1395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duff, Cameron. 2014. Assemblages of health: Deleuze’s empiricism and the ethology of life (Amsterdam: Springer International).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Duff, Cameron. 2016. ‘Atmospheres of recovery: Assemblages of health. Environment and Planning A, 481: 58-74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engel, George. 1977. ‘The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine’, Science, 196: 129-36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, Nick. 2016. ‘Health sociology from post-structuralism to the new materialisms’, Health (United Kingdom), 20: 62-74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furlong, Mark. 2015. Building the Client’s Relational Base: A Multidisciplinary Handbook (Bristol, UK: The Policy Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, Barney, and Anselm Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Company).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, Melissa, and Greg Seigworth (ed.) 2010 The Affect Theory Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  • Harper, David, and Ewen Speed. 2013. ‘Uncovering recovery: The resistible rise of recovery and resilience’, Studies in Social Justice, 6: 9-26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huff, Aimee Dinnin, and June Cotte. 2016. ‘The evolving family assemblage: How senior families “do” family’, European Journal of Marketing, 50: 892-915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, Marcia, and Sandra Resnick. 2015. ‘Two birds, one stone: Unintended consequences and a potential solution for problems with recovery in mental health’, Psychiatric Services, 66: 1235-37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, Bruno. 2005. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor–network theory (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Leamy, Mary, Victoria Bird, Clair Le Boutillier, Julie Williams, and Mike Slade. 2011. ‘Conceptual framework for personal recovery in mental health: Systematic review and narrative synthesis’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 199: 445-52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macgregor Wise, J. 2000. ‘Home: Territory and identity’, Cultural Studies, 14: 295-310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, George, and Erkan Saka. 2006. ‘Assemblage’, Theory, Culture and Society, 23: 101-06.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marino, Casadi. 2015. ‘To belong, contribute, and hope: First stage development of a measure of social recovery’, Journal of Mental Health, 24: 68-72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massumi, Brian. 2002. Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maybery, Darryl, Andrea Reupert, Kent Patrick, Melinda Goodyear, and Lin Crase 2009 Prevalence of Parental Mental Illness in Australian Families. Psychiatric Bulletin 33: 22-26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maybery, Darryl, Graham Meadows, John Clark, Keith Sutton, Andrea Reupert, and Joanne Nicholson. 2015. ‘A personal recovery model for parents with mental health problems.’ in A. Reupert, D. Maybery, J. Nicholson, M. Gopfert and M. Seeman (eds.), Parental Psychiatric Disorder: Distressed Parents and their Families (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), pp. 312-323.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mezzina, Roberto, Larry Davidson, Marit Borg, Izabel Marin, Alain Topor, and Dave Sells. 2006. ‘The social nature of recovery: Discussion and implications for practice’, American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 9: 63-80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, Vera, Anna Waterreus, Assen Jablensky, Andrew MacKinnon, John McGrath, Vaughan Carr, Robert Bush, David Castle, Martin Cohen, Carol Harvey, Cherrie Gallelty, Helen Stain, Amanda Neil, Patrick McGorry, Barbera Hocking, Sonal Shah, and Suzy Saw. 2012. ‘People Living with Psychotic Illness in 2010: The Second Australian National Survey of Psychosis’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 46: 735-752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueser, Kim, Piper Meyer, David Penn, Richard Clancy, Donna Clancy, and Michelle Salyers. 2006. ‘The illness management and recovery program: Rationale, development, and preliminary findings’, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32: S32-43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Joanne. 2014. ‘Supporting mothers living with mental illness in recovery.’ in N. Benders-Hadi and M. Barber (eds.), Motherhood, mental illness and recovery (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Joanne, Toni Wolf, Chip Wilder, and Kathleen Biebel. 2014. Creating options for family recovery: A provider’s guide to promoting parental mental health (Marlborough, MA: Employment Options, Inc.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichterlein, Maria, and John Morss. 2017. Deleuze and Psychology: Philosophical Provocations to Psychological Practices (Oxon, UK: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, Linda, and Amber Epp. 2015. ‘The Heterogeneous and Open-ended Case of Assembling Family.’ in R. Canniford and D. Bajde (eds.), Assembling Consumption: Researching Actors, Networks and Markets (London: Routledge), pp. 59-76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price-Robertson, R., Obradovic, A., & Morgan, B. (2016). Relational Recovery: Beyond Individualism in the Recovery Approach. Advances in Mental Health. doi:10.1080/18387357.2016.1243014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pyyhtinen, Olli. 2016. More-than-Human Sociology: A New Sociological Imagination (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Reupert, Andrea, and Darryl Maybery. 2007. ‘Families Affected by Parental Mental Illness: A Multiperspective Account of Issues and Interventions’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77: 362-69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Glenn, and Paul Wolfson. 2004. ‘The rediscovery of recovery: Open to all’, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 10: 37-48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, Diana. 2014. ‘The mainstreaming of recovery’, Journal of Mental Health, 23: 217-18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudnick, Abraham (ed.) 2012 Recovery of People with Mental Illness. Philosophical and Related Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Schön, Ulla-Karin, Anne Denhov, and Alain Topor. 2009. ‘Social relationships as a decisive factor in recovering from severe mental illness’, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 55: 336-47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Anne, and Lynere Wilson. 2011. ‘Valued identities and deficit identities: Wellness Recovery Action Planning and self-management in mental health’, Nursing Inquiry, 18: 40-49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slade, Mike. 2013. 100 ways to support recovery: A guide for mental health professionals, 2nd edition. (London: Rethink Mental Illness).

    Google Scholar 

  • Slade, Mike, Michaela Amering, Marianne Farkas, Bridget Hamilton, Mary O’Hagan, Graham Panther, Rachel Perkins, Geoff Shepherd, Samson Tse, and Rob Whitley. 2014. ‘Uses and abuses of recovery: Implementing recovery-oriented practices in mental health systems’, World Psychiatry, 13: 12-20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solantaus, Tytti, and Sini Toikka. 2006. ‘The Effective Family Programme: preventative services for the children of mentally ill parents in Finland’, International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 8: 37-44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sterling, Evelina, Silke Von Esenwein, Sherry Tucker, Larry Fricks, and Benjamin Druss. 2010. ‘Integrating wellness, recovery, and self-management for mental health consumers’, Community Mental Health Journal, 46: 130-38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, Tim. 2012. ‘Is recovery a model?’ in A. Rudnick (ed.), Recovery of people with mental illness: Philosophical and related perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Topor, A., M. Borg, R. Mezzina, D. Sells, I. Marin, and L. Davidson. 2006. ‘Others: The role of family, friends, and professionals in the recovery process’, American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 9: 17-37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Topor, Alain, Marit Borg, Simonetta Di Girolamo, and Larry Davidson. 2011. ‘Not just an individual journey: Social aspects of recovery’, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 57: 90-99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tucker, Ian. 2012. ‘Deleuze, sense, and life: Marking the parameters of a psychology of individuation’, Theory and Psychology, 22: 771-85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, Talia. 2011. ‘The (Un)managed Self: Paradoxical Forms of Agency in Self-Management of Bipolar Disorder’, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 35: 448-83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wyder, Marianne, and Robert Bland. 2014. ‘The Recovery Framework as a Way of Understanding Families’ Responses to Mental Illness: Balancing Different Needs and Recovery Journeys’, Australian Social Work, 67: 179-196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the families and service providers who generously gave their time to participate in this research. Parts of the current article were based on a separate journal article (i.e., Price-Robertson, Obradovic and Morgan 2016). This research was conducted while the first author was financially supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award, and was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee.

Funding

This research was conducted while the first author was financially supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award, which was awarded by the Australian Federal Department of Education and Training.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Rhys Price-Robertson

  2. School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Lenore Manderson

  3. School of Management, RMIT University, 445 Swanston Street, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Cameron Duff

Authors
  1. Rhys Price-Robertson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lenore Manderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cameron Duff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rhys Price-Robertson.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The first author, Rhys Price-Robertson, declares that he has no conflict of interests. The second author, Lenore Manderson, declares that she has no conflict of interests. The third author, Cameron Duff, declares that he has no conflict of interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Price-Robertson, R., Manderson, L. & Duff, C. Mental Ill Health, Recovery and the Family Assemblage. Cult Med Psychiatry 41, 407–430 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-017-9522-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-017-9522-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation