Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, Communication Studies (Communication)

This dissertation explores communication about mental illness and other sources of emotional distress inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though often untrained, religious leaders are the most sought-after source of support for mental illness and emotional distress in the United States. I used interviews, autoethnography, participant observation, and the analysis of cultural documents to gather and analyze discourses which illuminated how several local LDS communities understood mental illness and other forms of emotional distress. I interviewed thirteen Mormon bishops and ten professional mental health care providers who worked with LDS dominant populations about their experiences providing care for members in distress. Three main questions guided my research: What narratives do Latter-day Saints use to make sense of mental illness and other forms of trouble and how does this sensemaking enable or constrain emotional wellness? How does the LDS culture's habitus foster inclusion or stigmatize difference? How does silence around stigmatized issues like mental illness, human sexuality, and gendered violence enable or constrain religious leaders' and communities' ability to appropriately make sense of and respond to trouble? I present my analysis in chapters four, five, six, and seven. In chapter four I outline the spectrum of silence inside LDS communities and situate mental illness along it. I argue that overly programmed life scripts which I term brittle narratives lead some members to stigmatize trouble, have unrealistic life expectations, live by absolutes, and strive for perfection. In chapter five I discuss LDS discourses about human sexuality which I describe as existing in a narrative desert, a discursive landscape that only partially tells a dominant story and uses institutional and social power to police and silence counternarratives. In chapter six I discuss discourses about sexual violence which fall under a category I named narra (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lynn Harter PhD (Committee Chair); William Rawlins PhD (Committee Member); Brittany Peterson PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Bianco PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clergy; Communication; Counseling Psychology; Ethics; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Health; Mental Health; Organization Theory; Pastoral Counseling; Psychotherapy; Public Health; Religion; Religious Congregations; Rhetoric; Social Research; Spirituality; Womens Studies