From an ethically stuckplace to
revolutionary victory
Collective memory work with mothers of
diagnosed children
Line Lerche Mørck
(together with Heidi Birk Carlsen, Connie Cramer Jensen, Anja
Grøndahl & Irene Nørgaard)
20.05 2011
Line Lerche Mørck, associate
professor, DPU
“What do diagnoses do to us?”
The “us” includes the mothers, the fathers, the
children, the rest of the families and the
professionals who collaborate to support the
development of the children “acquisitioned”
by a behaviour-based diagnosis.
Danish-German critical psychology
tradition
• Mainstream psychology serves the interests of
capitalist/bourgeois society by individualising
problems and instigating personal work on the self
as a solution to psychological problems.
Mainstream psychology thereby results in
personal compliance rather than in active
engagement with changing repressive societal
conditions. (Holzkamp 1983 in Mørck & Huniche
2006)
A “psychology from the
standpoint of the subject”
(Holzkamp 1983)
• The Danish-German critical psychology is
conceived as an alternative methodological and
analytical strategy that builds on the study of first
person perspectives, rather than “expert” third
person perspectives.
• The aim is to enable personal and collective
emancipatory practices through practice research.
(Mørck & Huniche, 2006)
The collective biographies are written
in the third person
• Using the third person can help participants
explain themselves not as self-evident but as
unknown persons. It opens up to a description in
detail. In writing in the first person, a great deal is
taken for granted, omitted or considered
unimportant or embarrassing. Writing in the third
person distances the writer from the memory
(Haug 1997: p. 3-4).
• This was ethically helpful in dealing with the very
personal and/or sensitive memories.
Emancipatory research - movements
beyond stigmatisation
• One ethical issue was what to call the mothers and
their children.
• One of the mothers hesitated to join the group to
begin with because she was afraid of being
categorised as “a mother of an ADHD child”.
• She had struggled hard to get out of that box and
her son did not have the diagnosis anymore; they
had succeeded in moving beyond it.
The worries about joining the memory
work group
• “What does this do to me? The anxiety of getting
put in a box – not by you, but more culturally”
The mother referred to her experience
of being put in a box
• “I felt totally locked up in this box: “mother of a
child acquisitioned by ADHD”. I could not
breathe. I just had to get out of that box, and I felt
that really physically – I had to get out of it – it
was almost claustrophobic. And it is that fear I
have now: Oh-oh, now I am going to end up there
again”. (..) “Then you are suddenly the mother of
a child with ADHD even though the child no
longer thinks of himself as that and you do not
think him like that”
Ethical dilemma
• It is very hard to avoid the diagnostic
categorisation in the project, as the (sub)title of
this paper reflects.
• How should we collectively and ethically deal
with her anxiety?
• How can we produce revolutionary research of
relevance for families who are or have been
“acquisitioned” by behaviour-based diagnoses
without putting (yet again) mothers and their
children into boxes?
Steps beyond Stigmatisation
• It was very important to her to verbalise this issue,
(we had an ethical round at the end of each
meeting)
• All mothers agreed on wanting to shift the norms
related to right and wrong.
• The verbalisation led to a collective discussion of
the repertoires that rule the ADHD field. We
discussed how a mother of a diagnosed child can
easily feel different or “in the wrong” within this
field.
Differences and changes in the mothers
positions and standpoints over time
We had experienced very different standpoints and
positions during their lifetime:
• A critical “I don’t like diagnoses” attitude.
• Acknowledging that a diagnosis in some ‘stuck
places’ “may be a help” and/or “a relief” and may
often bring about some change.
• Test results as part of the diagnosis processes may
also “bring hope”.
Ways to deconstruct and soften the
tendencies of certain rights and wrongs
Verbalising the very different experiences and
positions was a way to deconstruct and soften the
tendencies of certain rights and wrongs within the
broad field of behaviour based diagnosis and also
within this local practice community of mothers
• Very critical or against medication
• Appreciation of the medication
• Considering the possibility
• Been there, done that and having moved beyond
medication.
Initial thesis of “The memory of when
diagnosis did something to her”
The limitations of diagnosis. How diagnoses are
powerful negative objectifications related to
experiences of violation and stigmatisation of the
child and the family.
Contradictions and processes of
distancing through irony
• As a course leader who coached parents “it was
smart to be the mother of a child acquisitioned by
ADHD”.
• It brought about the “you/we-know-what-it-all-isabout-atmosphere in the room”.
• But the distancing irony of the memory also
indicated that it was too smart and that the mother
had to get out of this “mother of a child with
ADHD” box.
Self-constructions and actions of the
various characters
Analysis of the self-constructions and actions of the
various characters in the memory:
• Especially the mother was very active and
reflective: “A mother of action potency”.
• The biography was deconstructed from
“limitations of diagnosis” to a “counter-narrative”,
an “empowerment narrative”
The fealings of Revolutionary Victory
at the third meeting
• The reconstruction process changed the initial
thesis statement of authors’ meaning of limitations
in diagnosis to a narrative of how to actually break
with the powerful stigmatisations of diagnosis
through active action, reflection, and expansive
learning in collaboration with teachers.
When we came to this point the mother cried out:
“YES!” and held up her clenched fist in victory
(M3, p. 14).
Litteratur – læs videre
Mørck, L. L. (2006). Grænsefællesskaber. Læring og overskridelse af
marginalisering. Roskilde Universitets Forlag
Mørck, L. L. (2010). Læring og overskridelse af marginalisering blandt
udsatte unge i folkeskolen. Unge pædagoger, Temanummer om
specialpædagogik.
Mørck, L. L. (2009). Kritisk psykologisk perspektiv på intervention.
Samarbejde omkring problemer og handlemuligheder. In K. Bro, O.
Løw & J. Svanholt (Eds.), Psykologiske perspektiver på intervention i pædagogiske kontekster. København: Dansk Psykologisk Forlag.
Mørck, L. L., Elholm, N. P., & Jensen, S. M. (2010). Inklusion og
fællesskaber bygger på respekt. Liv i Skolen, 4(2010), 45-52.