Chinese Cultural Variation on the Clubhouse Model in Taiwan

Frank T. Y. Wang
Yu-Hui Lu

DOI: 10.2190/SH.7.2.e

Abstract

The clubhouse as a psycho-social model for community psychiatric rehabilitation has spread around the world. Yet, if the clubhouse model is to be meaningful and replicated in different cultures, a greater flexibility and/or reinterpretation of the "clubhouse" is needed. This article examines the practices of peer support in Taiwanese clubhouses within the context of a self-help movement for the family members of persons with mental illness. Two ways of understanding the clubhouse are identified: the clubhouse as a model and the clubhouse as a set of guiding principles. Historically, families have been the primary carers for the mentally ill in Taiwan and in the wave of democratization after 1987 family members became the driving force for collective action. The professional domination over family members' associations divided the self-help movement into professionally led groups and anti-psychiatric groups; it also led to different interpretations of the clubhouse and of peer support. The professionally led group understands the clubhouse as a model and defines "peer" as a process of becoming through staff and members working together. The autonomous and psychiatrically skeptical groups understand the clubhouse as a set of guiding principles and define "peers" as persons with shared experiences. In both cases, the clubhouse has served as an alternative to the domination of Western privilege and medical discourse. Adopting a Foucaultian approach, this article provides a historical account of how clubhouse ideas are understood in Taiwan today.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.