The Skeleton on the Couch: The Eagleton Affair, Rhetorical Disability, and the Stigma of Mental Illness

Stigma Stories: Rhetoric, Lived Experience, and Chronic Illness

“…Consequently, rhetoric, as a study of meaning-making and power, has much to offer theorizations of stigma. In alignment with disability studies frameworks of stigma, rhetoricians have forwarded similar stigma theories that focus on the processes in which difference has been conflated with problematic deviance (Johnson, 2010;Rothfelder & Thornton, 2017). Jenell Johnson (2010) has argued that a rhetorical approach to stigma is one that examines "stigmatization as a dynamic social process rather than an individual attribute" (p. 462).…”

“…In alignment with disability studies frameworks of stigma, rhetoricians have forwarded similar stigma theories that focus on the processes in which difference has been conflated with problematic deviance (Johnson, 2010;Rothfelder & Thornton, 2017). Jenell Johnson (2010) has argued that a rhetorical approach to stigma is one that examines "stigmatization as a dynamic social process rather than an individual attribute" (p. 462). Moreover, rhetoricians have positioned stigma as a "rhetorical phenomenon" (Rothfelder & Thornton, 2017, p. 362) and as "an object of rhetorical criticism" (Johnson, 2010, p. 462).…”

“…of stigma, informed by disability studies, searches for the processes by which stigma is made possible and powerful as well as the processes by which stigma is fought. This has predominantly led rhetoricians to focus on the relationship between stigma and credibility and to consider how being stigmatized impacts a stigmatized individual's ability to be heard, valued, trusted (Johnson, 2010;Molloy, 2015). For example, Johnson studied the "rhetorically disabling" effect that stigma had when the public learned that Senator Thomas Eagleton (the running mate of 1972 US presidential candidate George McGovern) had previously been treated for depression, which was credited for McGovern's loss to Richard Nixon.…”

Survivors, Liars, and Unfit Minds: Rhetorical Impossibility and Rape Trauma Disclosure

“…The labels analyzed in this essay expose how this legacy of women as disabled lives on for those who describe their experiences with sexual assault, and I draw from scholars who locate the correlation between mental and rhetorical fitness to illuminate traces of this legacy (Dolmage and Lewiecki‐Wilson ; Prendergast ; Johnson ). For speakers to be perceived as rhetorically fit, they must also appear rational, and impressions of disability can quickly cast such speakers as those who should be expelled from public discussion.…”

"Don't Stop Believin'" in a pair of socks: How The Sopranos shapes our understanding of mental illness

“…White (2008a) argues in this study that these autobiographies act as manifestos to establish a "discursive resistance" for women suffering from mental illness. Likewise, Johnson (2010) (Glick & Applbaum, 2010). Of course, these examples differ from arguments surrounding mental illness in television drama, but they do exemplify how scholars have evaluated the rhetorical power of texts related to the topic.…”