Unstable states and the biologization of mental illness

Abstract

We critically examine how biological narratives of mental illness mediate relations between personal experiences and socio-structural conditions of distress in crisis contexts. Using three case studies of contemporary crises in Russia, the Republic of Cameroon, and Bangladesh, we showcase the ways in which biological meanings of mental illness carry political and structural significance as authorities employ “biologization” for political ends. In Russia, biologization is strategically useful to authorities seeking to control a populace, as chronic “conditions” can be “treated” indefinitely. In Cameroon, state psychiatrists in Yaoundé incentivize patient citizenship through biological frameworks of illness and intervention. In Bangladesh, the embodied presence of Rohingya refugees is a medium by which they can engage politically; therapeutic intervention becomes a site of political consensus in which Rohingya enact a “fictive biological citizenship.” Biologization of mental illness forms a basis for reinforcing or challenging the power of the state and the meaning of citizenship in distinct ways across these three contexts, highlighting the importance of attending to its political implications as it is invoked in frameworks of diagnosis, explanation, prognosis, and treatment in global contexts of ostensible crisis.