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Rationalism's Irrationality - An Example From Australian Mental Health Policy, Ciorstan J. Smark
Rationalism's Irrationality - An Example From Australian Mental Health Policy, Ciorstan J. Smark
Ciorstan Smark
This article reflects on the way in which accounting-related thinking influenced one particular historical event: the process of deinstitutionalisation from mental hospitals in New South Wales. The article suggests that accounting (via economic rationalism and other allied philosophical lenses ) led to the under funding of the deinstitutionalisation process to the detriment of society as a whole. Some of the societal difficulties inherent in using such rationalist calculus (biased towards quantified, monetary, accounting entity assumptions) as a means of evaluating social policies are then considered.