Samuel Teague Thesis
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An Analysis of Eight East-Coast Australian Newspapers’ Coverage of Mental Illness Stories, 2000-2014. Examining the extent to which mental illness is used to explain stories of violence and violent crime. Samuel Kingsley Teague Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. September 2019 Declaration I declare that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree in any university or another educational institution and that to the best of my knowledge and belief it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. __________________________________________ i Abstract The focus of this thesis is on the stories Australian journalists tell, and have told, about persons with mental illness in articles published in eight east-coast Australian newspapers between 2000 and 2014. The publications chosen for analysis were The Herald Sun, The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, The Burnie Advocate, and The Border Mail. A total of 1302 articles were sourced, containing both search terms ‘mental illness’ and ‘mentally ill’, published between 1 November 2000 and 31 December 2014. Many analyses of media content have been conducted, though none have included an account of the history of mental illness as an overarching framework. This thesis is innovative in that it draws on the history of mental illness, as told by Michel Foucault, Roy Porter, Andrew Scull, Peter Conrad, and Elaine Showalter, to contextualize the stories told by Australian journalists in the twenty-first century. An analysis of this history, dating from the fifteenth century to the closing of asylums in the 1980s, was conducted to uncover the narratives that have defined it, and then, in turn, how they inform mental illness coverage in the twenty-first century. The analysis yielded two principal narratives that have underpinned this history, and these were ‘confinement’ and ‘individual responsibility’. This thesis began as an investigation into the types of stories that Australian journalists told about persons with mental illness, and how they could be understood in the context of the history of mental illness, but it became a thesis about the ways in which mental illness can be used as a means for explaining violent crime, and most commonly, murder. Qualitative in its methodological approach, the researcher employed a combination of narrative and discourse analysis techniques to examine the content published in 1302 newspaper articles. Analysis yielded five principal themes: ‘violence’, ‘suicide’, ‘homelessness’, ‘prisons’, and ‘drugs’. Roughly forty per cent of the entire sample was coded ‘violence’, and it was this sub-category, along with ‘suicide’, that became the focus of the analysis chapters in this thesis. Analysis revealed that journalists frequently employ mental illness as an explanatory device to account for stories of violence, and in particular, murder. The researcher argues that this represents a continuation of the confinement narrative identified through historical analysis as it confines an individual diagnosed or being treated for mental illness to a stigmatized identity. This explanatory device was not employed uniformly. Mental illness was more likely to be drawn on in cases involving women who killed others, particularly family members, whereas men (particularly fathers) were more often portrayed as deliberate, calculated, and cold in their actions, as opposed to insane and uncontrollable. The social factors that underpin this coverage are examined at length. ii Acknowledgments For carrying me safely through those days and nights when the enormity of this task overwhelmed me, I thank … My soul-mate and best friend, Rachel. I once read that no human being is capable of fulfilling all the needs of another; that it is impossible to be an engaged partner, a best friend, an insatiable lover, a great conversationalist, and so on. But I disagree! I’ve lost count of the times you took me away, to Port Fairy or Hepburn Springs or Albany, to recharge and breathe. You rarely asked questions about my work, but that was because you were intuitive enough to know that it would be better, when we were at home, to discuss other things. How grateful I am that we get to share this life together. Thank-you for loving me. To Peter Robinson. Ours has developed into the warmest of friendships. Thank-you for your generosity of time and spirit. Thank-you for your patience and guidance. You were never unavailable, and so frequently armed with ideas that made this project stronger. This has truly been a joint effort, and I hope you’re as proud of this work as I am. For help in crafting every chapter, removing the words we’ve both come to despise, and for being a dear friend, I thank-you. To Andrew Dodd and Jennifer Martin. Your insight and feedback on every draft gave me much-needed confidence at times when I doubted my ability to convey in words the arguments that are central to this thesis. Those moments where you both expressed an appreciation of my writing were significant in my development as a scholar. To Geoff Oldfield. Each year you supported me, asked about my topic, offered guidance based on your own lived experience, and raised questions I’d rarely considered. You did so at times when you likely had a great deal on your mind. You have my gratitude and love. To Paul Teague. You and I are so alike. I complain a lot, and I’m resentful that you’ve delivered me this trait! But you taught me how to love, and I don’t think this sort of project can live without love. What a gift dad; the greatest of all. You’re a tremendous father. To Rosemary Woods. Your quiet support for me is so powerful, and I love that you get behind absolutely everything I do. I love you dearly. To Joel Albert. In all my life’s most vivid memories, you’re there beside me, running around Daylesford Lake in a storm, or kicking footballs at the drain on Leila Road. Your work with Indigenous youth has been a constant source of inspiration as I’ve chipped away at this task. iii To Sophie Adele. Our mutual love for language has been the backdrop to every sentence. I don’t write a single word without hoping it will impress you. You have my complete respect. Finally, to Papa, with whom I’ve shared conversations, both real and imagined. When I was much younger, you gave me two books, both hardcovers: Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams, and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. These books taught me the power of storytelling. Reading your own journals offered me an example of a man, self-described as ‘ordinary’, writing in an extraordinary way. It was just the example I needed, and I think about you often. iv List of Tables Table One Average daily readership (2018) for the eight Australian newspapers chosen for analysis ........ p. 36 Chart One Percentage of overall sample sourced from each of the eight east-coast Australian newspapers chosen for analysis .................................................................................................................. p. 37 Table Two Number of articles per theme ................................................................................................... p. 38 v Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................................................ i Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................. iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................... iv Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 The relationship between mental illness and violence .................................................................... 3 Chapter structure ........................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter Two: The History of Unreason ......................................................................................... 9 Understanding the experience of mental illness as socially constructed ........................................ 10 The history of mental illness ........................................................................................................ 14 The legacy of Sigmund Freud ...................................................................................................... 20 Australia ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter Three: Methodological Considerations .......................................................................... 32 Storytelling animals: defining narrative analysis .......................................................................... 32 Combining narrative and discourse analysis methods ................................................................... 33 Print