Forbidden Narratives Critical Autobiography as Social Science

Narratives such as these that have been forbidden as outside proper professional standards are now claiming and receiving attention. "Forbidden Narratives" has the power to speak to a broad audience of not only mental health professionals but also policy makers, sociologists and students of feminism. It is about the breaking up of professional discourse. It demonstrates and signals drastic changes in the social sciences.
"Forbidden Narratives" explores overlapping layers of voices that convey the social relations of psychiatric survivor participation within a community mental health service system. It is written from the perspective of a woman who, as a mental health professional in Toronto, had a physical and mental breakdown during the course of her work. Ironically, the author had plunged into the very system she had entered as a professional, a health researcher, and an activist.

Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science explores overlapping layers of voices and stories that convey the social relations of psychiatric survivor participation within a community mental health service system. It is written from the perspective of a woman who, in the course of working with the survivor movement, had a physical and emotional breakdown. Ironically, the author found herself personally confronted with issues she typically dealt with only from a distance: as a mental health professional, a researcher, and an activist.The author of this volume writes herself into her work as a major character. Narratives such as this have traditionally been forbidden as outside proper professional standards. Now they are claiming and receiving attention. Forbidden Narratives has the power to speak to a broad audience not only of mental health professionals but also policy makers, sociologists and feminists. It is about the breaking up of professional discourse. It demonstrates and signals profound changes in the social sciences.

Beginning from 'I'SpeakingActingKnowingFalling Off the FenceDisrupting the 'Rational'Reading the SilencesReturning to 'I'

Kathryn Church is a post-doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Canada. She has just completed a study of community economic development among low-income people in Toronto's downtown core. Dr.Church has worked for over a decade with members of the Canadian psychiatric survivor movement, provincially and nationally, to facilitate their participation in making mental health policy.