RESISTANCE AMONG EX-PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Symbolic interaction has increasingly emphasized cultural domination and resistance, human agency, and the variety of ways power and inequality are reproduced. How subjects construct social meanings under oppressive conditions has become a major research focus. This study reconceptualizes deviance in light of the above. Descriptive data were collected during two periods of research (1980-85; 1989-1991) on the posthospital worlds of psychiatric patients by means of participant observation, informal interviewing, and semiformal interviewing with 410 nonchronic and chronic ex-psychiatric patients residing in Southern Ontario, Canada, and central counties of Michigan. Using the concepts of ritual and a culture of resistance, we portray deviants constructing meaning under structures of domination, renegotiating meaningful self-images, identities, and overall conceptions of self. Expressive and instrumental rituals that lead to a culture of resistance are examined.