IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v143y2015icp311-319.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Learning how to deal with feelings differently”: Psychotropic medications as vehicles of socialization in adolescence

Author

Listed:
  • Choudhury, Suparna
  • McKinney, Kelly A.
  • Kirmayer, Laurence J.

Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic research among clinicians working with adolescents at a hospital psychiatric emergency department and outpatient clinic, and with interviews with adolescent psychiatric patients and their parents, we examine how psychiatric medicines function as socializing agents. Although psychiatric medications are thought to exert their main effects through direct biological action on neural circuitry, in fact, their use mobilizes specific kinds of moral discourse and social positioning that may have profound effects on sense of self, personhood, and psychological development. Specifically, our data reveal how clinical discourse around medications aims to enlist adolescents in becoming responsible, emotionally intelligent selves through learning to manage their medications. Among doctors, adolescents and their families, talk about psychiatric medications intertwines narratives of ‘growing up’ and ‘getting well’. Our analysis of case studies from the clinic thus demonstrates that while psychiatric medications are explicitly designed to influence behavior by acting directly on the brain, they also act to structure adolescents' selves and social worlds through indirect, rather than direct causal pathways to the brain.

Suggested Citation

  • Choudhury, Suparna & McKinney, Kelly A. & Kirmayer, Laurence J., 2015. "“Learning how to deal with feelings differently”: Psychotropic medications as vehicles of socialization in adolescence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 311-319.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:143:y:2015:i:c:p:311-319
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615001264
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ilina Singh & Nikolas Rose, 2009. "Biomarkers in psychiatry," Nature, Nature, vol. 460(7252), pages 202-207, July.
    2. Singh, Ilina, 2004. "Doing their jobs: mothering with Ritalin in a culture of mother-blame," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 1193-1205, September.
    3. Choudhury, Suparna & McKinney, Kelly A. & Merten, Moritz, 2012. "Rebelling against the brain: Public engagement with the ‘neurological adolescent’," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 565-573.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Flore, Jacinthe & Kokanović, Renata & Callard, Felicity & Broom, Alex & Duff, Cameron, 2019. "Unravelling subjectivity, embodied experience and (taking) psychotropic medication," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 66-73.
    2. Martínez-Hernáez, Ángel & Pié-Balaguer, Asun & Serrano-Miguel, Mercedes & Morales-Sáez, Nicolás & García-Santesmases, Andrea & Bekele, Deborah & Alegre-Agís, Elisa, 2020. "The collaborative management of antipsychotic medication and its obstacles: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wilcox, Claire E. & Washburn, Rachel & Patel, Vikram, 2007. "Seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in developing countries: A study of parental explanatory models in Goa, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 1600-1610, April.
    2. Claire Edwards & Etaoine Howlett & Madeleine Akrich & Vololona Rabeharisoa, 2012. "Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in France and Ireland: parents' groups' scientific and political framing of an unsettled condition," CSI Working Papers Series 024, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    3. Elsa Davidson, 2021. "The child sensorium as privileged biopolitical resource: Sensory care and the burden of emotional control in middle class North American childhood," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1129-1147, September.
    4. Andrew J. Oswald, 2010. "Emotional Prosperity and the Stiglitz Commission," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(4), pages 651-669, December.
    5. Koffman, Ofra, 2015. "Fertile bodies, immature brains?: A genealogical critique of neuroscientific claims regarding the adolescent brain and of the global fight against adolescent motherhood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 255-261.
    6. Ecks, Stefan & Kupfer, Christine, 2015. "“What is strange is that we don't have more children coming to us”: A habitography of child psychiatrists and scholastic pressure in Kolkata, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 336-342.
    7. Buchbinder, Mara, 2015. "Neural imaginaries and clinical epistemology: Rhetorically mapping the adolescent brain in the clinical encounter," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 304-310.
    8. Valentine, Kylie, 2010. "A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 950-957, September.
    9. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    10. Fried, Talia & Plotkin-Amrami, Galia, 2023. "Not all diagnoses are created equal: Mothers’ narratives of children, ADHD, and comorbid diagnoses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    11. Blanchflower, David G; Oswald, Andrew, 2011. "International Happiness," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 39, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    12. Choudhury, Suparna & McKinney, Kelly A. & Merten, Moritz, 2012. "Rebelling against the brain: Public engagement with the ‘neurological adolescent’," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 565-573.
    13. Broer, Tineke & Pickersgill, Martyn, 2015. "Targeting brains, producing responsibilities: The use of neuroscience within British social policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 54-61.
    14. Edwards, Claire & Howlett, Etaoine, 2013. "Putting knowledge to trial: ‘ADHD parents’ and the evaluation of alternative therapeutic regimes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 34-41.
    15. Pachucki, Mark C. & Ozer, Emily J. & Barrat, Alain & Cattuto, Ciro, 2015. "Mental health and social networks in early adolescence: A dynamic study of objectively-measured social interaction behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 40-50.
    16. O'Connor, Cliodhna & Joffe, Helene, 2013. "Media representations of early human development: Protecting, feeding and loving the developing brain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 297-306.
    17. O'Connor, Cliodhna & Kadianaki, Irini & Maunder, Kristen & McNicholas, Fiona, 2018. "How does psychiatric diagnosis affect young people's self-concept and social identity? A systematic review and synthesis of the qualitative literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 94-119.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:143:y:2015:i:c:p:311-319. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.