Mutual Aid Groups: Doctoral thesis in sociology by Stefan Jaffrin
Mutual
Aid Groups:
Doctoral
thesis in sociology by Stefan Jaffrin
Action Plan
1. The thesis problematic
2. A proposal: To
give a strong practical orientation to the thesis
3. First approach:
Observe the GEMs
4. Institutional
analysis of GEM development
5 The
"Professionals" of the GEMs: Presidents, Facilitators and
Sponsors
6 The GEMs,
Therapeutic Clubs and ClubHouse comparison
7. State of the art
literature on GEMq
8. Bibliography -1
on GEMs -2 on Psychiatry
A Gemmology trial
After
two years of investigation in the world of forced and drug oriented
psychiatry, I am preparing since last July a thesis on the sociology
of psychiatry. this thesis aims at the sociological study of the 500
GEMs existing throughout France : GEMs are new places created
by a 2005 law on Psychic Disability where some 30,000 people
suffering from mental disorders meet every year. Mutual Aid Groups
are self-managed associations and places open 35 hours a week to
cope with the isolation which handicapped them in their lives. They
welcome people with similar mental health problems, who drive them
in a situation of fragility and offer them the opportunity to
participate in the organization of multiple leisure activities. GEMs
are undoubtedly the most significant structural evolution in
psychiatry in the last 40 years. Never before have we seen so many
people being cared for and such a deployment of structures. It’s
almost a Copernican revolution in psychiatry. This new object
outside the medical institution could help us to move from the
dictatorship psychiatry we know too often today to a more democratic
form where each of the actors has the freedom to take his destiny in
hand.
This
thesis purpose is to know GEMs better (and make them better known)
and also to provide them with a federative & productive basis:
where do they come from, how they operate, what is the
particularities of each GEMs, how do they fit into local life,
collaborate with each other, organize themselves in their own way,
launch their own activities,... It will be necessary to study the
evolution of the concept from 2005 to 2016 last specifications, the
different ideological clashes which happens... I carry out a field
survey and participative observation on the of the Hauts de France
GEMs, while regularly visiting the GEMs of other French regions.
This
thesis will of course also investigate, to compare each others, on
other forms of psychological disorders community management, such as
Therapeutic Clubs and ClubHouses. Of course, I will closely studying
the very important literature codifying the implementation of GEMs or
the GEMs case studies that have already been carried out (about
twenty research papers on specific GEMs, cities or regions). The role
of the various GEM actors, presidents as well as salaried teams or
sponsors/managers, will have to be examined.
The
first field work will be to observe directly the GEMs daily life or
during their meetings (called InterGEMs networking) to build their
sociology. It will also largely be done via the Internet using the
networking and collaborative work force of the tool. I have also
started to implement a Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Blogger strategy
based on Open-Science (the progress of my thesis gives being step by
step documented by the publication of bibliographical and other
references (daily life events, conferences, publication of
articles,...) at the average rate of about 3 publications per day and
one discussion subject. Having become "friend" with about
forty GEMs and subscribing to forty others, I receive daily
information about their activities and gradually begin to get in
touch with everyone. More than a simple observation tool, the
Internet can also become the tool of a real Action-Research,
considering the purpose of this thesis, apart from its purely
sociological aspect, being to allow GEMs to have a better
communication with each other. This will be done on a large scale
after September 2019 with the launch of a collaborative website
discussion forums platform.
The thesis Issue
The thesis Issue
The main idea of this thesis will be that GEMs are not only helping people with mental disabilities but also help the whole society to find the path of a more inclusive and supportive way. To paraphrase Oury, who said that institutional psychotherapy was there to treat the hospital, we could say that GEMs, are paradigmacly, curing society, showing it the way to new forms of organization, more human and more collaborative, outside of marketing and excessive consumption in a society where work is gradually disappearing.... The GEM,a place of welcome for souls in distress where to playing cards is sometimes enough, can also become a place of life and self-organization of human communities and new forms of social life : for example, creation of the GEM vegetable gardens which allow a certain food self-sufficiency, humanitarian actions, animation of local life (participation in Knowledge Exchange Networks and Local Exchange Systems),...
If
at first people could find some GEMs a little gloomy and not very
welcoming, attending their weekly meetings, living there from day to
day and participating in daily group meals, makes realize a real
group dynamics is strongly in action. In fact, GEM members, who were
isolated from society, thanks to GEMs, more or less rapidly might
obtain a richer and more diversified life than a large majority of
French people : they go out several times a week, have varied leisure
activities, meet up every day with friends.... Over the past 15
years, GEMs have enabled a few hundred thousand people to come out
of their isolation and have had the opportunity of a new life.
Through this study I want to build the GEM sociological object, perhaps a little like what I did in my "Que Sais Je" on psychological assistance services by telephone ( N°2692 1992). It should make be possible to analyse from an original angle the evolution of psychiatry over the past 10 years (greater patient power,...) and the tensions between actors working in this field (professionals, users, families,...).
About the author
CHESS(Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) graduate 1990 (CREDA, Centre de Recherche sur les Dysfonctionnements de l'Adaptation)-Paris V-CEAQ Master1-"Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle" EHESS DEA. My DEA thesis on Psychological Helplines (directed by François Raveau, jury composed of Alain Touraine, Robert Castel and Michel Maffesoli), was published as Que Sais Je (N°2682 Presses Universitaires de France PUF 1992).
Co-founder in 1990 of the journal Sciences Humaines with Jean
François Dortier and Jean Claude Ruano, I was its professional
journalist for 2 years. I also published another book in 1995 on a
related subject, the Citizen Band (the Citizen band Tribe1995. This
book was award the "Communication & Will" prize of the
year). I also publish about a hundred journalistic articles in this
field of activity ( Marie Claire, International Journal of Medicine,
Telephone Journal, L'impatient, Sciences & Avenir,.…)
Then
I became an Internet specialist. After 25 years spent in the worlds
of Internet, journalism and teaching and 7 years travelling , I have
dedicated myself these past 3 years to humanitarian action with the
French Red Cross, Secours Catholique and Camions du Coeur- soup
kitchen (assistance to the homeless & migrants).
Complete professional profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adminet/
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