Critical Mental Health and Madness

This course pays attention to theoretical, epistemological, and ontological definitions of mental health. Key to this course is to un-map the discourse of mental health ways that open new ways of imagining the world anew. Issues of labels within contemporary neoliberal mental health mapping and contextualized in ways that open new formulas of imagining mental health and madness. The course argues that mental health is fused with issues of power and influence and is used to regulate populations living with mental health issues. The course looks at issues of colonialism while implicating social work practice to the collective trauma faced by Indigenous communities in Canada. It is upon that framework that the course engages with mental health discourse from an intersectional and reflexive to see how issues of gender, race, sexual orientation, immigration and imperialism are fused up to create an environment of oppression to marginalized communities. The course brings forth other ways of engaging with mental health to start imagining mental health in new ways that are grounded on people's values, realities and histories. Prerequisite: This course is restricted to students in year four of the BSW program or permission of the department. [LEC/SEM 3] 3 cr.

 

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