ABSTRACT
At a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works with people diagnosed with mental health problems, in Southern India, the staff began asking Meesha 1 (a woman with a schizophrenia diagnosis who lives at the centre) some questions. They asked her about her family. She told them, in Tamil (a South Indian language), that her mother had heard voices, like she does, and had been a ‘psychiatric patient’. Meesha said those two words, ‘psychiatric patient’ in English. That was the only English she spoke that day. When the staff asked her if she was a ‘psychiatric patient’, she said ‘No’, because ‘psychiatric patients’ had wild unbrushed hair – unlike her. ‘If you’re not a psychiatric patient’ the staff said, in Tamil, ‘why do you take medication? ‘To be cured’, Meesha replied, ‘to be cured of this place’. [Field notes, 10 January 2011]
