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 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/