Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyse the expanding autobiographical literature concerned with neuro‐psychiatric problems from a sociology of knowledge perspective. The literature shows a tendency towards objectivity and distancing, which supports a thesis of proto‐professionalisation. But the accounts are impregnated with frames of understanding other than only scientific ones, with regard to both form and content. The confessional character of the accounts and the prevalence of themes such as truth, falsehood, guilt, shame, trial, redress and reconciliation indicate that moral, existential and even religiously coloured perspectives of interpretation are being applied. By way of conclusion, these autobiographies will be discussed against the background of socio‐political changes in recent times, and also against the background of basic cultural features in modern societies.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15017410209510787 | Journal eISSN: 1745-3011
Language: English
Page range: 95 - 117
Published on: Jul 2, 2002
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
© 2002 Eva Palmblad, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.