I Don’t Wanna Die: Punk Rock Music and Culture as Critical Social Work Practice

Punk is a music genre and counter-culture that has provided community and empowerment to generations of traumatized youth. This article is a case study on the use of punk rock counter-culture through the expression of music as a critical social work practice within a psychiatric outpatient clinic. The clinic, Lane County Behavioral Health, was founded during the deinstitutionalization era of psychiatric care for the treatment of “severe and persistent mental illness.” The article describes the formation of the group, the shared personal and cultural history of the therapist with group members, and the critical engagement with psychiatric violence generated through the composition of punk music. In this, the process of composition and the lyrical content of four songs are provided. Each of these four songs demonstrate a connection of the personal experiences of psychiatric violence to a political protest against psychiatric violence. While the article focuses on the experience of punks in the psychiatric clinic, the implementation of relationality and personal-political experience are applicable beyond the punk counter-culture. The article concludes with discussion elaborating ways in which a relational analytic group can be implemented within tight knit counter-cultural communities.