Corpus, Discourse and Mental Health - (Corpus and Discourse) by Daniel Hunt & Gavin Brookes (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

**Shortlisted for the 2021 BAAL Book Prize for an outstanding book in the field of Applied Linguistics**

Situated at the interface of corpus linguistics and health communication, Corpus, Discourse and Mental Healthprovides insights into the linguistic practices of members of three online support communities as they describe their experiences of living with and managing different mental health problems, including anorexia nervosa, depression and diabulimia.

In examining contemporary health communication data, the book combines quantitative corpus linguistic methods with qualitative discourse analysis that draws upon recent theoretical insights from critical health sociology. Using this mixed-methods approach, the analysis identifies patterns and consistencies in the language used by people experiencing psychological distress and their role in realising varying representations of mental illness, diagnosis and treatment. Far from being neutral accounts of suffering and treating illness, corpus analysis illustrates that these interactions are suffused with moral and ideological tensions sufferers seek to collectively negotiate responsibility for the onset and treatment of recalcitrant mental health problems.

Integrating corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis and health sociology, this book showcases the capacity of linguistic analysis for understanding mental health discourse as well as critically exploring the potential of corpus linguistics to offer an evidence-based approach to health communication research.

Review Quotes

I am delighted with Hunt and Brookes' book. It offers a much-needed insight into discursive workings of texts in mental health contexts. It not only offers insight into experiences of mental distress, but, perhaps more importantly, that linguistics can offer much by way of understanding it.
Dariusz Galasinski, Professor, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland.

The research project reported in this book is impressive and impactful in its innovative design, methodological rigor, and careful analysis ... This interdisciplinary and flexible interpretation of the data reveals the authors' deep appreciation of the complexities involved in understanding, naming, diagnosing, and treating mental illness.
Applied Corpus Linguistics

This book is a fascinating new addition to the exciting field of linguistic research on mental health. It is a meticulous and thought-provoking account of how mental distress and the self-in-distress are linguistically presented (and resisted) in online communities by two recognised experts in the field. Focusing on depression, anorexia and diabulmia, Hunt and Brookes engagingly showcase the exceptional power of corpus linguistic tools to generate richly compelling, evidence-based and systematic, yet nuanced insights from the myriad of lived-experiences available online. A highly recommended read for anyone interested in mental health, the patient perspective, online communities or applied linguistics!
Zsófia Demjén, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, University College London, United Kingdom

About the Author

Daniel Hunt is Assistant Professor of Discourse Analysis in the School of English, University of Nottingham, UK.

Gavin Brookes is Senior Research Associate within the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK.