Madness and the medical model:
social being and practical madness work
by Andrew Phelps
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Abstract
John Shotter has described a cultural politics of everyday
life, based on 'knowing of the third kind'. This is taken as
a description of psychological 'normality' and inspires an
investigation of the two-sided topic of rationality /
irrationality. By deconstructing sectarian behavior, this
cultural politics is extended to a description of
psychological 'abnormality'. Shotter's inferred fusion of
pure and applied social psychology is re-cast as a tool for
practical madness work. This extension may possibly assist
social constructionism in becoming the dominant paradigm in
social psychology.
