A World of Indifference/Un Monde D’Indifférence: Canadian Women’s Experiences of Psychiatric Hospitalization/Expériences Canadiennes d’hospitalization psychiatrique au Canada

Abstract

This article presents findings and analysis stemming from a two-year qualitative study that explored, in their own voices, women’s lived experience of psychiatric hospitalization. Feminist Standpoint Theory and Foucauldian analysis frame and provide the moorings for validity, methodology, and analysis of this woman-centred inquiry. The verbatim representation of lived experience, coupled with the coauthoring of this article with two of the study’s participants provides an authentic articulation of participant standpoint. Furthermore, this approach creates a space in nursing scholarship in which the co-development of knowledge is also made possible. Overarching themes of docility-making, harm, betrayal, indifference, and resistance are presented and situated in a broader analysis of the hegemony of bio-psychiatric discourse and its colonization of nursing practice. In order to disrupt systems that fail to meet patient needs and fail to represent nursing’s values and ethos, we shed light on the possible systemic factors behind the experience of “indifference”.

Acknowledgements

Our appreciation is humbly extended to the women who participated in this study, two of whom are serving as coauthors and to various community agencies for their diligent advocacy efforts and support of this work. This article and its related film are dedicated to psychiatric survivor and anti-shock activist Sue Clark-Wittenberg. May you rest in peace knowing your work continues.