The mad’ spotted? politics of mad identity through discursive themes on Mahallenin Delisi (The Mad of the Neighborhood)

Abstract

This study primarily deals with the politics of mad identity, and specifically, it aims to explore the discursive construction of mahallenin delisi (the mad of the neighborhood), a disappearing public figure, as a social identity in the accounts of non-professional people. In this direction, the construction of the prominent characteristics of the mad of the neighborhood, and the mode of social relations with this figure in terms of particular emotions, social values, social roles and functions that are attached with this identity are examined. In addition, the relation of the mad of the neighborhood identity to the mental patient identity, and the particular aspects psychiatric discourse operates in the constructions of mad identity are explored through discursive themes on mahallenin delisi. Five semi-structured focus group interviews including thirty-three middleaged adults were conducted in İstanbul, Antalya and Afyonkarahisar to collect personal experiences and views on the mad of the neighborhood. The participants were mostly the natives of the city the session was held, and their age ranged from thirty-five to sixty-five. Focus group sessions were audio and video recorded, and the mean duration of the sessions was ninetyeight minutes. The study demonstrates that the mad of the neighborhood is constructed as a public identity whereas the mental patient is constructed as a medical and institutional identity, albeit both terms refer to the mad. The differences in the respective constructions of the two identities further influence the mode of social relations with the mad and the perspectives on the confinement of the mad. Whereas the mad of the neighborhood was embraced among the neighborhood community through infantilization and could lead a life in public space, the social exclusion and the confinement of the mental patient is legitimized through their criminalization. Moreover, the ongoing spatial and social transformations of public space in terms of the neoliberalization of the cities are argued to produce new modes of social control, regulation, and exclusion in the neighborhoods through the dramatization of crime and violence. The public spaces are redeveloped and transformed in ways to limit social encounters with the mad and other marginalized groups, which further reinforces the social exclusion of the mad. In sum, modern psychiatry and neoliberal urbanism both contribute to the disappearance of the mad of the neighborhood as a public identity through their legitimization of social exclusion of the mad in their own particular discourses on public safety and through their respective mechanisms of social control and regulation.