Contained mad voices: An ethnography of digital practices and mobilities of voice and madness

This research interrogated the potential of voice in digital media for people living with mental illness. It drew from the fields of mad studies and digital media studies to inform a digital ethnography that explored the everyday practices and mobilities in and around digital media of eight people who identified as having mental illness. In doing this, this research explored issues of temporalities and spatialities of madness, which affected how and when mental distress was experienced and spoken about. Additionally, it examined the role of listening as a necessary corollary to voice, and the manner in which acts of listening was hindered by stigma. Lastly, it examined how dominant systems of psychiatrised knowledge simultaneously informed and limited alternative ways of thinking and speaking about mental distress. Taken together, these findings informed the development of a novel theory of ‘contained mad voice’, which proposes there are ‘containers of voice’ that restrict people’s capacity to self-narrate and participate in sense-making. Overall, this theory argues that while people are ‘free’ to speak in and around digital media, these acts are largely governed by social and cultural norms that determine not only how madness is spoken about, but what voices and narratives are registered as credible ways of knowing mental distress