“Mixed nutters” and “Looney tuners:” The emergence, development, nature, and functions of two informal, deviant subcultures of chronic, ex‐psychiatric patients

Abstract

This study systematically examines the rise and nature of two subcultures of discharged, chronic psychiatric patients, and the various positive and negative functions such subcultural formations serve for their members. Participant observation and informal interviewing over a three year period with ninety‐seven chronic ex‐psychiatric patients provides an ethnographic description of the structural and interactional factors giving rise to the development of, nature of, and consequences of participation in, an informal deviant subculture. The data analysis reveals that, although relatively new, the ex‐mental patient subcultures have a clearly‐defined set of norms and values, crystallized patterns of behaviour, sharply‐defined boundaries within which to carry out their activities, a distinctive vocabulary or argot through which ex‐patients communicate to one another, and an ideology or world‐view, a set of ideas developed to suit their own interests and justify their behaviours. The ex‐psychiatric patient subcultures serve a six‐fold function for their members: they provide them with social support, they serve a cathartic function, aid members in dealing with the stigma potential of their “differentness” or “failing”, furnish ex‐patients with “sound” reasons regarding their deviant attribute, thereby enhancing their self‐esteem, provide members with practical strategems for “making it on the outside”, and furnish ex‐patients with a self‐justifying rationale for engaging in various deviant/illegal acts. The negative consequences of participation in such subcultural forms'are also addressed.¹