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Master of Arts / N/A

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The notion of 'race' was central to the thinking about and administration of Aboriginal affairs in the 1930s, but its meaning was fluid. In many respects Auber Octavius Neville, senior bureaucrat in Western Australia from 1915-1940 and a national figure in Aboriginal affairs during that period, was emblematic of the race thinking of the period. This study looks at the Western Australian Moseley Royal Commission of 1934, the Western Australian Parliamentary debates and legislation of 1929 and 1936, the Canberra Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities in 1937, and Neville's 1947 book, Australia's Coloured Minority - for their exemplification of race thinking. Basic incompatibilities and inconsistencies, as evidenced in Neville's thinking and action across his career, were common in the period. Neville's central administrative desire was to force biological absorption to its ultimate conclusion - the 'Destiny' of Aborigines of the part descent was to be absorbed biologically into the white community. He used scientific support to 'prove' the 'safety' of this strategy. The central premise of Neville's race thinking, however, was that some form of racial essentialism would always negatively impact upon the 'absorption' of Aborigines into white Australia. Other major figures differed with Neville over the suitability of absorption, notably Queensland Chief Protector, J. W. Bleakley, but still believed in some essential 'Aboriginal-ness'. The thesis also traces Neville's attempts to dominate Aboriginal affairs both in the construction of the 'problem' and in proclaiming solutions. Neville was absolutely certain that his solution was the only way forward. This certainty, when added to the inconsistent notions of race that informed his conceptualisation of the 'problem', produced policies and practices of insurmountable internal contradictions that have profoundly affected generations of Aborigines.

This thesis argues that current treatment in acute public mental health services is counterproductive for the wellbeing of those subject to such services. The consumer/survivor movement activism against the coercive nature of treatment is analysed according to new social movement theory. According to social theorists such as Alaine Touraine, new social movements are characterised by a struggle over identity. Consistent with this theme, what is identified in this thesis as central to the consumer/survivor movement objection to the nature of treatment in acute public mental health services, is the failure of services to respect patient identity as persons. What might account for this failure is analysed in this thesis through an examination of the question of the conceptualisation of the subject in the theory and concepts of psychiatry, in the practice of psychiatry, in mental health law and in government policy. / As a counterposition to the above perspectives, the work of RD Laing, Charles Taylor and Paul Ricoeur are considered in an attempt to develop a conceptualisation of the subject grounded in a historical narrative. Further, Emmanuel Levinas’ and Axel Honneth’s work is drawn on to identify the practical implications of Honneth’s claim for a politics of recognition, which also supports the consumer/survivor movement demand for recognition as subjects in mental health services.