Challenging Prescribed Identities: A Discourse Analysis of Sexual Orientation Based Identity Narratives in Turkish Mental Health Literature (Bilgit, 2018)

Abstract

The normative sexuality dictated by gender regimes has been problematized especially in recent decades by medical and social science scholars in Turkey. This article specifically focuses on the course of change in mental health discourses written in the Turkish Language in terms of sexual orientation based identity narrative formations. To reveal the elusiveness of hegemonic discursive formations structured by the authors of such texts, certain interrelations are connected within and among texts. Through a review of several critical texts in Turkish, alternative discursive formations from the discipline are demonstrated. Discourse analysis is conducted of four book-chapters, two articles and one interview which are available and relevant within the mental health literature. This research indicates that although sexual orientation based discourses in Turkish mental health literature have been problematic historically, there is also an accelerating development in human rights based approaches within the field as opposed to those of inequality regimes.

Keywords:
discourse analysis; gender regimes; mental healthcare in Turkey; sexual orientations

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