A growing critique of modern psychiatry focuses on how its biomedical model frames emotional experiences—especially those outside societal norms—as internal dysfunctions to be treated rather than responses to complex social and environmental factors. In a new article published in Synthese, Zoey Lavallee and Anne-Marie Gagné-Julien from McGill University argue that this approach perpetuates what they call “affective injustice” and fosters a form of sanism that marginalizes individuals labeled as mentally ill, ultimately distorting how we understand our own emotions.
“This paper addresses one crucial manifestation of psychiatrization, still little studied in the literature; namely, the psychiatrization of our emotional lives. That is, the increasing influence of psychiatric conceptualizations on the ways we interpret our own and others’ emotions, especially when these emotions are extreme, distressing, unusual, or otherwise radically deviate from what is deemed ‘normal,’” Lavallee and Gagné-Julien write.
“In this paper, we will argue that biomedical conceptual frameworks that pathologize norm-deviating emotions can, in fact, be a source of injustice, and we specifically draw attention to how this form of injustice is encountered by psychopathologized people—anyone who is perceived by medical professionals or others to be mentally ill, whether or not they have received psychiatric treatment or diagnosis.
By examining how the biomedical model pathologizes non-normative emotional experiences, Lavallee and Gagné-Julien shed light on the ways psychiatry silences and discredits valid emotional responses, reinforcing systemic oppression. Their analysis highlights the harms of emotion pathologizing, a process that distorts feelings as psychiatric symptoms while neglecting social and structural factors. This critical inquiry calls for an urgent reevaluation of psychiatry’s role in shaping emotional self-understanding, urging scholars and practitioners to dismantle the narrow frameworks perpetuating injustice.
Lavallee and Gagné-Julien add:
“We argue that, under the effects of psychiatrization, processes and practices of emotion pathologizing cause harm to psychopathologized people by influencing them to make sense of their own norm-deviating emotions using an impoverished set of interpretive resources that engender unjust disadvantages and prevent access to more empowering ways of understanding their own emotional lives.”
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l write from turkey. I unconsciously told a lie to the psychiatrist that I was hearing voices in my ear. I did not know he had schizophrenia, then when I told him I was lying, they told me to bring someone from the family, No one from the family is coming and if someone from the family came, he lied so that his disabled rights would not be lost. fake psychiatrist listens to what the family says
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Freud spoke on behalf of society when he said “where id was, there go ego”. This corresponds to societies unstated dictum which is “where life was, let functional social process go”. Or, “where Mother Nature was, let the disease process of civilization go”. It’s a bit like the tumour saying “where healthy tissue was, let pathological growth go”. Or “where free and natural human being was, let computer brained production line meat and bone machine go”. And the computer program of society is in your head calling itself ‘me’. That’s the ego you see, fellow meat and bone machine.
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If you really want to talk about Injustice, this problem was far worse before psychiatry was somewhat medicalized. When we were all just “mentally ill” and didn’t have any recognizable underlying brain pathology. Back then, every emotion we had was f’ing crazy. We were all just crazy mentally ill people, neurotics who had something wrong with our minds.
At least now that there’s some acceptance that there is a problem with our brains, there is some acceptance that some of our emotions are normal, not just a product of neurosis. Of course those emotions deemed abnormal, or too over the top are still deemed pathological, but I remember when all my emotions were deemed to be pathological. When I didn’t have a normal thought in my head, because my brain wasn’t just suffering from a disorder, my brain was disordered. People who aren’t old enough to remember that, like the author apparently, are lucky, and should maybe read something about the history of psychiatry, so they realize just how lucky they are.
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With all due respect, there is not one single “mental disorder” that has a recognized “underlying brain pathology.” You should read Anatomy of an Epidemic so you will better understand why people feel they have been fooled. And people are STILL deemed “abnormal” for any negative or strong emotion they may experience. I don’t see the current system as any improvement from the viewpoint of pathologization. They are still calling you “crazy” but now have broken it down into brands of “crazy.”
There is also now evidence that making the BRAIN the focus of the “disorder” actually increases stigma and decreases empathy for the so-called “mentally ill.” Especially when you consider that the DSM “disorders” are all entirely invented in committees and have no scientific basis in brain pathology, they can keep their labels and stuff them someplace dark and stinky!
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I think psychiatry has always been harsh towards their patients, overall, including in the present. I think in some ways it’s worse now because this pathologizing our emotions too much has infiltrated the mental health industry so more and more psychologists see us more as having a brain disorder that needs to be medicated. I’ve had psychotherapists who delve into your history and your beliefs but I’ve had many that don’t. In fact, I’ve met psychiatrists who don’t believe in psychotherapy because it doesn’t cure trauma. I think psychoanalysis is so important to help you understand yourself better. It’s often not a cure but it can be helpful.
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Some emotions and feelings have to be pathologized because they are pathological (i.e. they cause suffering to the individual and the people around them). The fact that some mentally ill people are affected by trauma, marginalization or other forms of violence does not change the fact their emotional and behavioral responses have become maladaptive and pathological.
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So who gets to decide what emotions are “maladaptive and pathological,” Mich? And based on what?
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Perfect ..I want to know this same thing . But what or who can help us by proof which they don’t have.
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To No-one: I would add the impact of parental behavior on children, from birth to some point in early childhood, is a stronger contributing factor to how an individual perceives themself and the environment, and in turn how it engages through the social webs of a society. My opinion influences – Alain De Boton, Gabor Mate, many authors of childhood development research, many decades of developing self-awareness, and learning about who I am and am not. If you are curious — Who I am not was shaped by exposure to behaviors and words from infancy onward. Who I am was concealed by who I am not. It took decades to finally uncover who I am. The work was grueling at times, depressing, and I was enraged by what I finally understood. I hated the process, however the glimmers of who I am shown through just enough to keep me engaged. I learned my grandmother, who lived with us, loved me no matter how many times I angered her and she yelled at me. Her care/love remained consistent. My parents were too selfish, too emotionally immature to love beyond themselves. They were caretakers of physical well-being, i.e. food, clothes, shelter, and get your ass to school. It was my grandmother who protected me, with her constancy and consistency of action, regardless of how she felt toward me, that told me on some level I was loved. It took me 35 years to realize this. I now live with self-acceptance and peace, though it is no blue skies and rainbows. I continue to live with habituated/embedded behaviors. For example, I live in a defend and attack mode, in most situations. What’s different is I know it and keep it underwrap most of the time. I possess a relatively distrustful view of everyone. And am aware of love and hatred as two sides of the same coin. These behaviors are the “gifts” of my parents. They will always be with me.
No-one: You’re on the “right” road to a life well lived. Who are you? A rhetorical question.
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I can relate to what you’re saying. My parents have a lot to do with how I turned out. But other environmental experiences did to such as school and others as well as society in many ways.
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I totally agree with you about the fundamental importance of parental and familial conditioning in explaining the social phenomena we call ‘mental illness’, and it just strikes me in your comment how it is through precisely this kind of social trauma or ‘mental illness’ that you begin to trace the true causes to the immediate social environment which produces, through it’s conditioning of our brain and capturing of our lives, our psychological environment. Suffering what they call mental health problems is not a happy thing, but for me it is happier then having no true insight into life and society and consciousness, despite all the lost years thanks to the grift that is psychiatry, who is the child of a baron woman called ‘society’, the false breast, the bad breast – the fraudulent bad breast of a disease process that destroyed our once perfect Earth, which includes the person that we once were. But we can become them again, with technical ease. Become you – become free. Let the obstacles to this freedom present themselves and then steam roll through them all, without regret and without apology. For life doesn’t apologise for itself – it is itself, and therefore it just lives. Sorry – silver beads shot out of her eyes. And then the rain came.
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You have a way with words. I especially like it when you said to become you without regret or apology for life doesn’t apologize for what it is. That’s so true. We should be true to ourselves.
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I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner, so I’ll put this truth right out front! Additionally, my life’s work is pediatric and adult complex PTSD and all its sequelae. 90% of what I do for my clients is Validate their emotions, thoughts, experiences — even if people in their lives have told them that they are pathological. I insist they are not, no matter how extreme, as every human response is a survival mechanism against ghastly, tragic, traumatic circumstances. Emotions are vital to our existence.
Just want to express that not all of us follow this soul crushing pathologizing paradigm. (Of course there are exceptions, thank goodness!) Validating one another is one of the most healing experiences any of us can have.
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Thank you. I wish more people thought the way you do.
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I agree with this
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A therapist once told me: “you are having a normal emotional reaction to an abnormal event/situation.” Imagine how much good would be done, and how healthy we would be, and how more easily we could get past difficult events in life, if mental health professionals considered US to be fine and the WORLD and EVENTS over which we had no control not fine?!?! Example: the sudden terrible Covid-19 pandemic: 99% of humans alive and able to think had at least some difficulty with this once in a lifetime negative world event. Does that mean all 99% of us were magically (and even persistently) Mentally Ill? No, friends. We were all having normal emotional reactions to an unprecedented abnormal worldwide situation. Let’s apply the same principle to other things in life. Things can be hard. We will feel sad, angry, hurt, jealous, afraid, etc. Normal human emotions. When we create a culture and society that vilifies all emotions except for a couple, we are in trouble. Our human emotions are part of our biology, our very makeup. Let’s allow our kids and ourselves and all humans around us to feel our emotions, to be human again. Let us not jump to label or pathologize or stigmatize those who are just expressing normal emotions in an abnormal world. It’s the folks that do not seem to feel anything or show any emotion or seem to be robotic or fake or numb that scare me the most, like corporate bosses or political candidates who cannot smile normally or laugh, who cannot show empathy or benevolence.
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That’s so well said. I totally agree. Chronic and severe invalidation can be very traumatizing. I know that personally. Thank you for validating people.
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Yes! I try to tell myself that on a regular basis because I’ve been through such chronic and severe invalidation. We should say this to ourselves whenever we are judging ourselves or when others are judging us.
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An interesting exchange. My wife and I have been Facilitators for families of the severely mentally ill (SMI) for over twenty years through NAMI and DBSA. I have a brother with schizophrenia since he was 26. He is now 68. We lived through the journey with our parents, my new wife then to this day. He and I now talk daily. He lives independently now. It was no small task.
We worked with a few thousand families over the years and many requested our help to navigate the local mental health system maze across the US. We are not clinicians or lawyers. We just have been down this road before and helped many others.
We observed a few key factors this discussion has not touched on. One is family. Their impact on the individual in basic relationships, communications, support, and care. We focus on families not the individual requiring assistance for a reason. They often are the barrier.
We are also Peer Recovery Specialists by Proxy, (PRS). We understand the world of the individual with a disorder like my brother, or SUD or more likely, dual diagnosis. It provides us a very different lens to see things than clinicians like you, who have not walked the walk.
There is no magic wand, or silver bullet to ‘cure’ these disorders. They are very real, and debilitating for the individual and family. Don’t kid yourselves. The Recovery Model can be effective if embraced and supported by the individual and their community/family. But it is hard.
We have had successes, MIAs and some losses. That is the battle.
But to deny it, ignore it or attempt to redefine it extremely ignorant and dangerous.
We are in a Mental health crisis. Funding is at an all time low, psych clinicians are in short supply as are beds, especially for long-term treatment, not 5-20 day sedation sessions. Those are a MWOT. Spare us.
Look at your homeless, the % of them are mentally ill. Look at those with alcohol or SUD, what % are also dealing with SMI. Don’t fool yourselves that putting a roof over their heads, or giving them free drugs will solve their problems.
Thank you for reading my post. We are Pathfinderjohn.com
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I’m glad you got help for your brother. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder but not all “mental disorders” are due to genetics or are strictly biological. I’m sorry but I think most of the time it’s the environment. Stress from all various forms of trauma can harm a child’s developing brain and there is no perfect family or environment. Children can learn unhealthy ways of thinking and behaving from parents, from others or even from society.
What makes me cringe are the family members, especially parents, who are a part of the problem or the whole problem but don’t want to see it and would rather just blame the child’s genetics or biological make-up for their child’s problems.
I was absolutely floored when I read on NAMI’s website that mental illness is not a product of poor parenting (or even many other forms of trauma). My abusive mother would have loved NAMI because she wouldn’t have had to take responsibility for the abuse she inflicted upon me and how much it harmed both my mind and my brain and nervous system for that matter (it’s all connected). I know people who blame their problems on their “mental disorders” instead of on their traumas or fears or insecurities. They also want to be taken more seriously by family and friends and society at large. Many find relief when their brains are blamed because they were taught to blame themselves for their problems. Nobody wants to be seen as being vulnerable because you are looked down upon and sometimes used as a result. I’ve been diagnosed with so many “mental disorders” and really what it boils down to is chronic and severe invalidation and lack of love, guidance or acceptance as well as bullying from family, school, community and society overall. It’s just so much easier to blame the brain for everything than to see certain very painful truths.
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