What do you think?
Rate this book
Warp & Weft
Warp & Weft gathers together ideas, radical frameworks and reference points to explore consciousness, and ways of understanding experiences of distress as they occur within our social and systemic contexts.
It looks at what gets called ‘mental health’ and challenges the idea that our experiences of distress, struggle or variable consciousness are only ‘mental’. It challenges the way biomedicine splits mind from body and soul, and names that we are embodied beings, who are shaped by and unfold within the contexts we have inherited and live in.
It looks at some of the history of psychiatry and examines the ways it has been, and continues to be used as a colonial force. It reframes trauma; it looks at the effects of trauma in the bodymindsoul, acknowledges the intersection of personal and collective trauma, and explores ways we might move towards healing.
Warp & Weft considers how we are given cultural ‘scripts’ for experience, and how we might relanguage experience on our own, and non-medical terms. Terms which address root causes of distress and point towards holistic approaches, in order to foster liberatory personal and collective transformation.
It looks at what gets called ‘mental health’ and challenges the idea that our experiences of distress, struggle or variable consciousness are only ‘mental’. It challenges the way biomedicine splits mind from body and soul, and names that we are embodied beings, who are shaped by and unfold within the contexts we have inherited and live in.
It looks at some of the history of psychiatry and examines the ways it has been, and continues to be used as a colonial force. It reframes trauma; it looks at the effects of trauma in the bodymindsoul, acknowledges the intersection of personal and collective trauma, and explores ways we might move towards healing.
Warp & Weft considers how we are given cultural ‘scripts’ for experience, and how we might relanguage experience on our own, and non-medical terms. Terms which address root causes of distress and point towards holistic approaches, in order to foster liberatory personal and collective transformation.
438 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2021
21 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Read
March 27, 2023This is a great lay introduction to a wide (if relatively shallowly-explored) array of psy-critical topics, as well as a formidable collection of alternative resources oriented toward collective healing and transformative wellness. Definitely not a substitute for a critical Mad/disability studies scholarly reader, but suitable for someone looking for what / who / how to read next.
February 21, 2026
I've taken a wee while after finishing this to get to the review to consider where I was with it. I feel like I can't fault it but it's not really a book for me. The arguments are all clear and well-articulated; the resources and citations all comprehensive and insightful. I don't doubt this has a wide application to a load of people working in healthcare and psychiatric-adjacent fields. I think for me I'm used to going in the deep end, and Fannen is quite resolutely keen to keep this book open and accessible.
What it covers is broadly a set of ideas, frameworks, epistemologies, to help create a kind of holistic therapeutic understanding. Rather than dissociating the body from its broader social context, the two are seamlessly and strongly bound. Rather than regarding the individual's 'madness' as a mechanical failing, it's brought into a wider fabric of social relations. Within that, it's worth saying that whatever about this is 'radical', it's not in the sense of (say) the NSK - madness, disability, wellness (etc) are spoken of as antagonisms to normativity but rather than an individual's being has many touchpoints and frictions embedded within its community(s).
It's also worth saying that it takes careful consideration of non-Western approaches as well - there's a real danger in contemporary 'wellness' cultures that the root cultures aren't well-respected and this book is careful to seek out perspectives outside of the writer's ken. I wouldn't say this was a replacement for seeking out less-well-received voices but it certainly points at places one could investigate.
I think the 'problem' I had with this (if you could call it that) is that I've come across a lot of these ideas elsewhere - in post-colonial thinking and in disability theory particularly. My hesitation in getting to this review is that my perspective isn't necessarily that helpful - I can't fault this book for being an exhaustive realisation of a raft of ideas in that realm and it's well-written and entirely approachable. I'm also not a health practitioner of any measure so this doesn't necessarily fall within my remit. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a bounty of ideas to explore and ways to integrate what is essentially (and essential) political thinking into a realm that too-often depoliticises itself and disconnects the body from its community.
What it covers is broadly a set of ideas, frameworks, epistemologies, to help create a kind of holistic therapeutic understanding. Rather than dissociating the body from its broader social context, the two are seamlessly and strongly bound. Rather than regarding the individual's 'madness' as a mechanical failing, it's brought into a wider fabric of social relations. Within that, it's worth saying that whatever about this is 'radical', it's not in the sense of (say) the NSK - madness, disability, wellness (etc) are spoken of as antagonisms to normativity but rather than an individual's being has many touchpoints and frictions embedded within its community(s).
It's also worth saying that it takes careful consideration of non-Western approaches as well - there's a real danger in contemporary 'wellness' cultures that the root cultures aren't well-respected and this book is careful to seek out perspectives outside of the writer's ken. I wouldn't say this was a replacement for seeking out less-well-received voices but it certainly points at places one could investigate.
I think the 'problem' I had with this (if you could call it that) is that I've come across a lot of these ideas elsewhere - in post-colonial thinking and in disability theory particularly. My hesitation in getting to this review is that my perspective isn't necessarily that helpful - I can't fault this book for being an exhaustive realisation of a raft of ideas in that realm and it's well-written and entirely approachable. I'm also not a health practitioner of any measure so this doesn't necessarily fall within my remit. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a bounty of ideas to explore and ways to integrate what is essentially (and essential) political thinking into a realm that too-often depoliticises itself and disconnects the body from its community.
January 21, 2025
This book is incredibly empowering and liberating.
So many texts within the health space focus solely on the individual, and rarely, if ever, touch on wider social, political, cultural and environmental factors at play. Warp and Weft centres these discussions and considerations in such refreshing clarity, allowing it to go so much further than other books.
Lisa writes wonderfully accessibly, allowing me (not trained in psychology/psychiatry at all) to really dive into the text, and with the humility of offering possible interpretations, approaches and methods that the reader may wish to explore, rather than the often used 'this is the Godsend method that you absolutely must adopt'. Especially when casting a critical lens on popular frameworks, the approach is 'where are they useful, and where may they be limited'/
The lessons within have completely altered my view of bodymindsoul health, the industrial complexes that run rife through them, and the critical importance of everyday politics and activism, and collective, community care, within these (and all) spaces. Particularly empowering were lessons around hermeneutical injustice, and the politics of disorder - and how, ultimately, no-one knows us better than we do ourselves, and we can listen to and explore for ourselves the healing journeys we find useful whatever they are, and regardless of what 'authority' they are communicated by. And more often than not, this can lie within the ways we all live and communicate together.
A must read to support anyone interested in, or exploring, wellness!
So many texts within the health space focus solely on the individual, and rarely, if ever, touch on wider social, political, cultural and environmental factors at play. Warp and Weft centres these discussions and considerations in such refreshing clarity, allowing it to go so much further than other books.
Lisa writes wonderfully accessibly, allowing me (not trained in psychology/psychiatry at all) to really dive into the text, and with the humility of offering possible interpretations, approaches and methods that the reader may wish to explore, rather than the often used 'this is the Godsend method that you absolutely must adopt'. Especially when casting a critical lens on popular frameworks, the approach is 'where are they useful, and where may they be limited'/
The lessons within have completely altered my view of bodymindsoul health, the industrial complexes that run rife through them, and the critical importance of everyday politics and activism, and collective, community care, within these (and all) spaces. Particularly empowering were lessons around hermeneutical injustice, and the politics of disorder - and how, ultimately, no-one knows us better than we do ourselves, and we can listen to and explore for ourselves the healing journeys we find useful whatever they are, and regardless of what 'authority' they are communicated by. And more often than not, this can lie within the ways we all live and communicate together.
A must read to support anyone interested in, or exploring, wellness!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews