Diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and becoming better: An investigation into epistemic injustice and mental health

Epistemic injustice concerns a harm done to someone in their capacity as a knower, on the basis of attributing to them a credibility deficit. This can occur at the level of spoken communication, which is testimonial injustice: or in regards to the availability or otherwise of the conceptual tools needed to make meaning, which is hermeneutical injustice. Both kinds of injustice are especially active in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and disorder. This is because, in the absence of regular itemised scans and tests, determinations of value rest on the testimonies of patients and the persons presenting them. This dissertation consists of an extended investigation into mental health diagnosis and misdiagnosis by way of an interrogation of spoken and structurational biases and prejudices. It is my contention that by revealing, exploring and deconstructing highly questionable attributions of meaning, the voice of the patient can be heard in irrevocably clear terms. This is such that she is empowered to move forward positively in her journey towards health and wellbeing. My overall aim is to map the context of criticality that frames the patient, whom I term an experient, in that her experiences are potentially common to all. To the degree that she can in one way or another harness the hermeneutical and critical tools of philosophy she is also a theoretical patient. My main objective is to design an embryonic metric for measuring epistemic injustice. This is so experients and other interested parties can begin, in ordered-terms, to recognise when a wrong is taking place. Through a timely and accurate recognition of epistemic injustice, as it appears, the resources of healthcare economies may be employed with consistent efficiency and sensitivity. Suffering persons, in reflecting constructively on their identities, may become better, healing, growing, and proactively learning, in diverse ways.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mres

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Sampson, Martyn

• BF Seicoleg
• RC0321 Niwrowyddoniaeth. Seiciatreg biolegol. Niwroseiciatreg

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:1849