1. The Alberta Mental Health Act 2010 and Revolving Door Syndrome: Control, Care, and Identity in Making up People.
- Author
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Barron, Gary R.S.
- Subjects
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MENTAL health laws , *COMMITMENT & detention of people with mental illness , *SOCIAL conditions of people with mental illness , *MENTAL health policy , *MENTAL health services , *SOCIAL history - Abstract
In this paper, I describe dividing practices in making up a specific medical-legal category-the revolving door patient-to identify, label, and direct the actions of particular people living with mental illness. The revolving door patient was a category that had been spoken of for some time, but became a formal legal subject with the introduction of the Alberta Mental Health Act 2010 and Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). I demonstrate how a rationale of control over unpredictable and dangerous individuals was primary in creating this new category, and that the characterization of the revolving door patient required a disciplinary technology to reduce danger. I argue that the CTO is a medical-legal technology that solves the problem of governing a subject in order to produce a patient that manages mental illness. I conclude by reflecting on how the narrative of the revolving door patient, and of mental illness more broadly, has implications for personal identity and tensions between care and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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