ABSTRACT
Amongst the noted characteristics of neoliberalism, the capitalist restructuring that has taken place in nations around the world since the 1970s is a normative privileging of the individual and a retreat of the welfare state. Within this economic climate, welfare and health care are stripped back, outsourced and placed in the hands of private companies with profit-seeking agendas. The care of the mentally ill is forced into a market model in which outcomes can be measured, with the ‘patient’ constructed as consumer of pharmaceutic and therapy industries, yet nevertheless depicted as 'responsible' for their own well-being. Mental illness, always a lonely experience, may be even lonelier today as individuals confront increased stigma and the broader impact of austerity measures. This chapter reports on narrative research with a group of long-term mentally ill adults, all of whom experience profound loneliness. It found a range of strategies mobilised by individuals to overcome the experience as well as distress over diminished support and the messages commonly disseminated regarding the onus on them to combat loneliness.
