Appreciating ‘schizophrenics’ online: Identification in mHealth

Abstract

Medical science not only affects our lives in terms of health and disease but also transforms our more vital experiences. Nowadays, this statement has acquired special significance, given the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) by medical practice, the so-called eHealth. The great growth in the use of smartphone applications for managing mental distress has been coined as ‘pocket psychiatry’. Within this digital scape, many disease-specific apps such as ClinTouch, aimed at the self-management of psychosis, have been launched in the market. By using the analytical concept of ‘script’, the article aims to show how the psychiatric world-view embedded in ClinTouch defines a particular framework of action for ‘schizophrenic’ users to contest ‘external-identifications’. It is suggested that if the main endeavour is to promote mental health in the community, it is needed to go beyond the biomedical model to maximize the social participation of people with mental suffering in the use of ICT.