Abstract
This paper illustrates how concepts of mental disorder have been deployed to medicalize negative emotions and, thereby, weaken the political agency of some individuals. First, I theorise the link between political agency and emotions, arguing that effective political action entails the transformation of emotions into public issues. Using the British referendum on membership in the EU as a case study, I then examine how medically loaded terms and rhetoric were used to describe suffering after the vote. Finally, I argue that this generated conditions that interrupted or even reversed the transformation of subjective experiences into politically meaningful issues.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 823-840 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Early online date | 15 Feb 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 15 Feb 2018 |
Bibliographical note
The acceptance date for this record is provisional and based upon the month of publication for the article.Keywords
- Arendt
- political emotions
- political agency
- EU referendum
- Brexit
Access to Document
- Full-text PDF (final published version)
This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Routledge at https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2018.1438334 . Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
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Full-text PDF (author’s accepted manuscript)
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