Enabling spaces: moving with and beyond psycho-social-material crisis

In Denmark, and most other western countries, our treatment of mental illness issues is highly individualized and biologized. However, this entails a rather reductionistic comprehension of the human psyche and the often-complex aspects of the human lifeworld that presents as mental illness issues. Drawing on ecological psychology and cultural-historical psychology, this talk explores the potential of moving beyond dominant dichotomies of e.g., self and other, psyche and soma, to support mental illness recovery. Recovery is a strong (political) buzzword, yet despite a vast body of research documenting the meaning of community, of material spaces etc., recovery-oriented work tends to remain an individualized – and psychologized – endeavour.
Based on various research projects, including developmental projects within the field of social psychiatry, I will argue for the meaning of ‘enabling spaces’ and ‘collectividual’ approaches to support human development – and hence processes of recovery. This puts into perspective the tendency to individualize human problems which extends beyond the field of psychiatry or social work efforts and puts into question how we delineate our unit of analysis in relation to comprehending – and responding to – complex problems.