Under the direction of Livia Velpry and Aude Béliard
This thesis studies the social appropriations and uses of the diagnosis of bipolarity by sufferers and their families. The aim is to analyze how these people define, interpret and invest the category of bipolar disorder in relation to their social properties and trajectories, and the family relationships. Variations in appropriation and use of the category are studied between family members and between different families. At the intersection of the sociology of mental illness and the sociology of the family, the thesis also explores the effects of appropriations and uses of bipolar disorder on family configurations. In this way, the research explores how families influence the destiny of a psychiatric category at the intersection of many issues, and how it in turn disrupts families. To illustrate these points, family monographs will be produced. In-depth interviews will be conducted with a number of families from two user associations and one medical-psychological center, giving us a population with a wide range of characteristics.
