Citation

Redikopp S, Smith S. Sociol. Health Illn. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1467-9566.13560

PMID

36189737

Abstract

This article explores the proposed psychiatric diagnostic category of nonsuicidal self-injury disorder (NSSID) through the lens of feminist psychiatric disability theory. Mobilising insights from labelling theory's accounts of stigma and recovery, in conjunction with critical and feminist disability theory's attention to emotional and physical pain, we suggest that a feminist psychiatric disability approach to NSSID can illuminate the limits of a fully demedicalised engagement with self-injury. While remaining critical of psychiatrisation processes, we explore the implications of 'strategic (dis)identifications' with illness labels as mechanisms through which to manage and access care, treatment and recovery. Such a nuanced account engenders more deeply material considerations of pain, stigma, treatment and 'cure' at the site of NSSID, opening new avenues of engagement with self-injury for sociologists and critical disability scholars alike.

Language: en

Keywords

self-injury; feminist disability theory; feminist psychiatric disability theory; labelling theory; nonsuicidal self-injury disorder