Governing mental health: the Tasmanian Mental Health Services Commission annual reports 1968-90.

Abstract

This article uses a form of discourse analysis to examine a series of official reports on mental health matters in Tasmania during the period 1968-90. Drawing upon recent developments within ideology theory, and also on work that elaborates and extends Foucault's notion of governmentality, the study isolates and analyses the particular political rationalities and governmental technologies through which 'problems' of mental health in Tasmania have been rendered knowable and governable during the period in question.