Degerman, Dan (2019) Brexit Anxiety : A Case Study in the Medicalization of Dissent. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 22 (7). pp. 823-840. ISSN 1369-8230
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Abstract
This paper illustrates how concepts of mental disorder have been deployed to medicalize negative emotions and, thereby, weaken the political agency of some individuals. First, I theorise the link between political agency and emotions, arguing that effective political action entails the transformation of emotions into public issues. Using the British referendum on membership in the EU as a case study, I then examine how medically loaded terms and rhetoric were used to describe suffering after the vote. Finally, I argue that this generated conditions that interrupted or even reversed the transformation of subjective experiences into politically meaningful issues.