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STUDYING "FAMILY USAGE":

Family Image and Discourse in Mental Hospitalization Decisions

This article offers an approach to family studies focusing on "family usage"—that is, discursive application and manipulation of family signs and imagery. Reconceptualizing family in terms of descriptive practice, I examine how family image and discourse are used to interpret and organize everyday social relations. Field data from community mental health and legal settings provide illustrations, and the role of family image and rhetoric in involuntary commitment decisions is discussed. I conclude by suggesting some possible directions for further qualitative studies of family usage.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 17, No. 3, 261-284 (1988)
DOI: 10.1177/089124188017003002


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