ABSTRACT
Social understandings of mental distress have held persistent tensions with concepts used in disability studies. One means to advance stronger conceptual alliance is through critical realism. This chapter demonstrates how the application of critical realist meta-theory enables us to deepen and broaden our level of explanation when conducting empirical research with people with mental distress. In the process, the chapter shows how critical realism offers a normative bridge between social understandings of mental distress and disability studies.
