The Lost Social Context of Recovery Psychiatrization of a Social Process

From being a concept questioning the core of psychiatric knowledge and practice, recovery has been adopted as a guiding vison for mental health policy and practice by different local, national, and international organizations. The aim of this article is to contextualize the different understandings of recovery and its psychiatrization through the emergence of an individualizing and de-contextualized definition which have gained a dominant position. It ends with an attempt to formulate a new definition of recovery which integrates people in their social context. Research results from various follow-up studies showing the possibility of recovery from severe mental distress have stressed the i…

"I will never forget him". A qualitative exploration of staff descriptions of helpful relationships in supportive housing.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Recovery-oriented studies show that the quality of the professional relationship plays an essential role in the recovery from mental illness. Within mental health care in general, previous studies show that helpful professional relationships are characterized by several reciprocal aspects, such as friendship resemblance and self-disclosure. The literature is scarce on in-depth explorations of professional relationships within the often long-lasting and intimate help context of institutional supportive housing. Explorations of staff members' experiences are absent. The scientific rationale of this study was to expand the current knowledge about professional rel…

Shared Sequences from Network Therapy with Adolescents Only the therapist Finds Meaningful

As part of a larger research project, this qualitative study explores sequences from six network therapy sessions. We focused on these sequences because only the therapists found them to be meaningful; the other participants did not think they were significant. The aim of this study was to explore the therapists’ inner dialogues, the degree to which these inner dialogues consist of professional and personal voices, and what this means for the dialogical process. We used a multi-perspective methodology that combines video recordings of network therapy sessions, participants’ interviews, and text analysis. We found that the outer dialogue and the therapists’ inner dialogues are strongly relat…

Nothing matters: the significance of the unidentifiable, the superficial and nonsense

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the ways in which “small things” may be of importance for people with mental health difficulties. Method: Empirical material from three different studies was reanalysed through a phenomenological, dialogical, approach. Results: We discovered some paradoxical aspects of small things: i.e., they could be about “something” that was difficult or even impossible to identify. The unidentifiable could be about bodily, sensual experiences that are superficial (i.e., belonging to the surface). The interaction with others highlighted as significant could be about doing something fun, talking nonsense or kidding around, and hence not at all about m…

Ethical realism before social constructionism

In this article, I explore the idea that there is a fundamental ethical aspect that precedes social constructionism. I suggest that within social constructionism we can identify a development from seeing knowledge as socially constructed ( epistemological social constructionism) to seeing not only knowledge, but also corporeal ways of being as socially constructed ( ontological social constructionism). As a next step, I propose incorporating what I refer to as ethical realism in social constructionist perspectives. In the encounter with the other human being, I argue that there is a real ethical impulse that precedes social constructionism and puts it in motion. This impulse is real in the…

Change is an ongoing ethical event: Levinas, Bakhtin and the dialogical dynamics of becoming

In this article, we use the intersubjective ethics of Bakhtin and Levinas and a case illustration to explore change in therapy as an ethical phenomenon. We follow Lakoff and Johnson in their emphasis on the way our conceptions of change seem permeated by metaphors. Bakhtin and Levinas both suggest through a language in which metaphors play a crucial role, that human existence—the consciousness and the subject—emerge within the dialogue of the encounter. They both describe the dynamics of human existence as ethical in their origin. Following this, we argue that change may be seen as an ongoing ethical event and that the dynamics of change are found in the ways we constantly become in this ev…

"Stop Making sense" a randomised text design study

The current epistemological scaffolding of psychotherapy and mental health care ruthlessly privileges what is already understood and given shape, to the extent that what is currently meaningless and chaotic is strained out. The present work is an experimental attempt at contesting this way of going about the business of mental (health) care. To achieve this, we attempt to systematically destroy meaning in a text that we ourselves have produced. Through the innovation “randomised text design”, we seek to provide space for non-meaning and ignorance within the mental health discourse. What the process of randomised text design allows us to do, is bend away from ideas that hold psychotherap…

Materialities in supported housing for people with mental health problems : a blurry picture of the tenants

Our daily lives and sense of self are partly formed by material surroundings that are often taken for granted. This materiality is also important for people with mental health problems living in supported housing with surroundings consisting of different healthcare services, neighbourhoods, buildings or furniture. In this study, we explored how understandings of tenants are expressed in the materialities of supported housing. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork in seven different supported accommodations in Norway and analysed the resultant field notes, interviews, photographs and documents using Situational Analysis. The analysis showed that supported housing materialities expressed a blur…

Klassesamtaler som eksistensielt drama - der psykisk helse oppstår mellom oss

Author's version of an article in the journal: Nordic Studies in Education. Also available from the publisher at: http://www.idunn.no/ts/np/2012/02/klassesamtaler_som_eksistensielt_drama_-_der_psykisk_helse_?highlight=Ulland#highlight This article presents a qualitative study of a mental health promotion initiative at the interface between culture, health and education. In this initiative the aim is to facilitate conversations about various life issues in mainstream classes in high school. The study shows that the conversations set off thoughts and feelings with the students which are considered to be positive and meaningful and that the initiative contributes to an increased experience of …

Samtaler gir samhold- der tanker og følelser settes i sving : en kvalitativ studie av et psykisk helsefremmende tiltak i videregående skole

Masteroppgave i psykisk helsearbeid- Universitetet i Agder 2010 This study is a qualitative study of a mental health promotion intervention in a secondary school in Vest Agder, Norway. In this intervention clinicians from Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Sørlandet sykehus visits ordinary school classes and facilitates an open dialogue on various topics of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate and describe this intervention through an exploring of the students experience and understanding of it. The data of the study has consisted of 59 texts written by students who participated. The data was analyzed through a phenomenological hermeneutical method with the purpose of…

Small Things, Micro-Affirmations and Helpful Professionals Everyday Recovery-Orientated Practices According to Persons with Mental Health Problems

The aim of this study is to present concrete descriptions of the content in the construction of helpful relationships with staff, according to users. Starting with the re-occurring concept of the meaning of "little things" in recovery studies, a literature review was done. A thematic analysis shows that small things play an important role in improving a person's sense of self. Small things seem to be an invisible but effective parts of a recovery-orientated practice, but they might be defined as unprofessional and their efficacy negated.

‘Through speaking, he finds himself … a bit’: Dialogues Open for Moving and Living through Inviting Attentiveness, Expressive Vitality and New Meaning

Studies exploring the experiences of recovering from mental health difficulties show the significance of social and relational aspects. Dialogical practices operate within the realm of social relations; individual perspectives are not the primary focus of attention. The present study is part of a series of qualitative studies from southern Norway, exploring dialogical practices and change from the perspective of lived experience and in relationship with network meetings. Two co-researchers, who themselves had experienced mental health difficulties, were part of the research team. Material from qualitative interviews was analysed through a dialogical hermeneutical process where ideas from Em…

A qualitative fallacy: Life trapped in interpretations and stories

This paper points out some problematic aspects of qualitative research based on interviews and uses examples from mental health. The narrative approach is explored while inquiring if the reality of life here is forced into the formula of a chronological story. The hermeneutic approach, in general, is also examined, and we ask if the reality of life in this scenario becomes caught up in a web of interpretations. Inspired by ideas from Bakhtin and phenomenology, we argue for interview-based research that stays with unresolvedness and constantly question the web of interpretations and narratives that determine our experiences. This also chimes with certain dialogical practices in mental healt…

‘It’s not just a lot of words’. A qualitative exploration of residents’ descriptions of helpful relationships in supportive housing

Author's accepted manuscript. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Social Work on 24/10/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13691457.2019.1682523.

Doubt, Hope, Pain, and New Discoveries: Parents’ Experiences of the High‐Conflict Program ‘No Kids in the Middle’

“They say yes; they don’t say no” : Experiences of change in dialogical approaches to mental health - a qualitative exploration

Doktorgradsavhandling

Studies regarding supported housing and the built environment for people with mental health problems : A mixed-methods literature review

Abstract Places where people live are important for their personal and social lives. This is also the case for people with mental health problems living in supported housing. To summarise the existing knowledge, we conducted a systematic review of 13 studies with different methodologies regarding the built environment in supported housing and examined their findings in a thematic analysis. The built environment of supported housing involves three important and interrelated themes: well-being, social identity and privacy. If overregulated by professionals or located in problematic neighbourhoods or buildings, the settings could be an obstacle to recovery. If understood as meaningful places w…

Things matter: about materiality and recovery from mental health difficulties

ABSTRACT Purpose The aim of this study is to explore how material things might become involved in the recovery process of people with mental health difficulties. Method Empirical material from three different studies on various aspects concerning mental health issues that each of the authors had conducted was reanalysed through a phenomenological item analysis. Results We discovered that mundane objects such as a mobile phone, a bench, a door and a key have agency to contribute to peoples’ recovery and wellbeing. Things became agents that created contexts that initiated physical, social and emotional movements. Conclusion By giving attention to materiality we might become aware of the impor…

The magic in the (extra)ordinary: Intensive validation to recalibrate the life-worlds of adolescents exposed to abuse

This qualitative case study aimed to explore environmental circumstances and inter-actional processes that appeared to be relevant for the dynamics of resilience in ado-lescents exposed to child abuse. Fieldwork at a learning and coping centre forchildren and their families was combined with semi-structured interviews with ado-lescent participants aged 12 to 18 years. A critical realist approach was used tounpack what has been called the‘ordinary magic’of resilience. We found thatinten-sively validating qualitiesof both theenvironmentandrelationshipsseemed to be driv-ing components for resilience. Borrowing ideas from the sociometer theory, wepropose that particularly the consistent intensi…

“She Offered Me a Place and a Future”: Change is an Event of Becoming Through Movement in Ethical Time and Space

Published version of an article in the journal: Contemporary Family Therapy. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10591-014-9317-3 Within mental health research, the promise of exploring the lived experience of those affected is increasingly acknowledged. This research points to the significance of social aspects. The present study is part of a series of qualitative studies exploring network-oriented practices in southern Norway. The aim of this study was to explore the social dynamics of change related to adolescents in psychosocial crises. From the perspective of lived experience the study focused changes related to the adolescents’ ways of existing in various …

‘He is Quirky; He is the World's Greatest Psychologist’: On the Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common

In this article, we challenge the concept of the therapeutic relationship as an operationalisable entity. In contrast to this idea, we introduce Alphonso Lingis’ concept of community, and his distinction between the rational community and the community of those who have nothing in common. This is done through speculative analysis of a transcribed sequence from a research interview with a boy who speaks about his experiences of receiving mental health care. This boy and his family were helped through a network-oriented, dialogical approach. In the sequence highlighted here, the boy speaks of the significance of a particular mental health practitioner. The boy expresses appreciation for the h…

A Study of a Network Meeting: Exploring the Interplay between Inner and Outer Dialogues in Significant and Meaningful Moments

The present study is part of a series of qualitative studies focusing on dialogic practice in southern Norway. In this article, we present a qualitative study of a network meeting focusing on the interplay between the participants' inner and outer dialogues. The network meeting is between an adolescent boy, his mother and two network therapists, the same adolescent case discussed previously in this journal by Boe et al. (2013). The aim of this study is to explore how the interplay between inner and outer dialogues contributes to significant and meaningful moments for the interlocutors. A multiperspective methodology is used that combines video recordings of a network meeting and participant…

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