Everyday Spaces of Mental Distress: The Spatial Habituation of Home

Abstract

Theorising psychological activity as a spatial product appears a logical extension of moves in social theory to emphasise the role of space and place in the consideration of experience. Catalysed by turns in social and human geographies to highlight the role of space and location in constituting psychological activity, various forms of the ‘spatialisation of experience’ have emerged. In this paper I will follow this theoretical direction in relation to the underlying destabilisation of everyday life that emerges as a product of theoretical formations that emphasise the fluidity of space. More specifically, I will take the example of the home as a central space in the ongoing activity of people with enduring mental distress. Forging a theoretical line that takes in geographies of mental health, the home, and finally, Gilles Deleuze's work on ‘repetition’ and ‘habit’, I will analyse the role of home spaces in everyday life. Key here is a concern regarding the impact of theoretical emphases on continuity, mobility, and instability on understandings of the everyday lives of mental health service users. This includes addressing conceptualisations of the home space alongside the activities of the people who occupy, and hence co-make, such spaces. The article concludes by framing ‘spatial habituation’ of the everyday as central to creating a perceivable stability, analysis of which can aid understanding of the challenges facing people suffering with mental distress.

Belongings Beyond Borders: Reflections of Young Refugees on Their Relationships with Location

“…This is likely to be particularly difficult for young, separated refugees, but there is a lack of research on how the new places that they live in and move through can affect their psychological experiences. This reflects the relative neglect of the idea that our psychological activity and the identities we enact are contingent on the spaces in which we are located (Tucker, ).…”

“…However, a theoretical emphasis on context and its centrality to psychological processes has emerged in relatively recent social, health and community psychology research (Dixon & Durrheim, , Hodgetts et al, , Tucker, , & Tucker, ). It has been argued that a focus on spatial, material and relational dimensions is essential if we are to understand ‘issues of social relations and health’ (Hodgetts et al, ).…”

“Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know”: The pervasive socio-medical and spatial coding of mental health day centres

“…Drawing from one-to-one, semi-structured interviews together with ethnographic observations and research diary notes , this paper seeks to draw these strands together to provide analytic insight of the ways in which space and a sense of "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know": The pervasive socio-medical and spatial coding of mental health day centre spaces 10 place are played out within these (semi)institutionalised therapeutic spaces of care and recovery. These are pertinent themes to explore further as a set of divergent structures incorporating expressions of a sense of displacement (Parr, 2000), comfort and safety, engagement and control (Fogel, 1992) when discussing the territorialisation of shared spaces located within mental health care provisions (Buchanan, 2006;Tucker, 2010).…”

Topology and mental distress: Self-care in the life spaces of home

“…This is part of relatively recent social and community psychological research that has begun to address the issue of space, not just as another element of our social w orlds, but as a designator of the kind of experience psychological activity takes (e.g. Dixon & Durrheim, 2004;Tucker, 2010b). Influetial to this move is the long history of w ork in human geography that has demonstrated the benefits of approaching experience as a spatially bound activity (e.g.…”

“…One result of this is that home space is becoming a key part of mapping the territories that constitute 'community' (i.e. non-in patient) mental health (Tucker, 2010a(Tucker, , 2010b. In this paper photographs of a service user's home w ill be analysed from a topological perspective in w hich psychological experience is conceptualised as spatially distributed.…”