The Construction of Mental Health among Muslim Influencers on Instagram. A comparative Study between German and Tunisian Actors.

“Can only a Muslim therapist really treat me well? How important is it that the therapist has the same faith?”

These questions come from a post on the Instagram page of a German influencer of Muslim faith. Like many other influencers on Instagram, the influencer “psych.beck” deals with questions about mental health, self-care, nutrition, fitness and lifestyle. Particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and aspects such as social distancing, the topic of mental health is increasingly being discussed on social media such as Instagram and debated at various levels of society. What does mental health mean for Muslim actors on Instagram? Which narratives are constantly taken up or (consciously) avoided? From the perspective of religious studies, there is a particular focus on religion in times of profound mediatization. This is where the research project “The construction of mental health among Muslims on Instagram – A comparative study between German- and Tunisian-speaking actors” comes in. Using the grounded theory method (GTM), the dissertation will investigate whether and how religious traditions and authorities are linked to the topic of mental health among Muslim actors. Audio-visual field data (IGTV, stories, image contributions) as well as episodic interviews with influencers are used for the analysis. With regard to the comparative study, the data comes from German- and Tunisian-speaking actors of Muslim faith. With regard to the two countries mentioned, various factors are important for researching the question of the construction of mental health by Muslim actors in mediatized lifeworlds. Both areas (German- and Tunisian-speaking) offer different starting points on a socio-cultural, religious, political and historical level. With regard to Tunisian-speaking actors, for example, the influence of colonial discourses on the generation and construction of knowledge will be of theoretical interest. In the context of Muslims in Germany, the focus will be on the positions of religious minorities in respective niche discourses. Using the topic of mental health as an example, the research should provide information about the respective socio-cultural processes and their connection to actors in mediatized worlds such as Instagram.