Governing mental health: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of power, media and ideology in British newspapers

This article examines how mental health is discursively constructed in British newspapers. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of power, discourse and biopolitics, the study employs Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore how mental illness is framed across newspapers with different political ideologies. By comparing left- and right-leaning newspapers, our research identifies how these political ideologies shape narratives of mental health, revealing how these representations contribute to normalization, pathologization or politicization of mental distress. The findings suggest that media discourse functions not merely as a reflection of public sentiment, but as a mechanism through which mental health is governed; structuring what is thinkable, sayable and actionable. In doing so, the study can deepen critical insights into how media contributes to the creation of mental health knowledge and highlights the subtle operations of power that underpin everyday representations of illness.