To tell the right story
Functions of the personal user narrative in service user involvement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v8i2.103Keywords:
Narrative, service user narrative, user narrative, function, service user involvement, user involvement, counter-narrative, powerAbstract
From the starting point of narrative ethnography, this article explores a specific kind of service user involvement in psychiatry: staff training activities in which patients and former patients are invited to “tell their stories”. A core feature of these stories is that they are based on the narrators’ self-perceived experience, and they all have a highly personal character. I call these stories service user narratives, and these are the topic of study in this article. The narratives’ disposition, content and functions are explored, as is the role played by the personal aspects of the stories. This article investigates two functions of the service user narrative: the narrative as a means (1) of creating alternative images of mental ill health, and (2) of enabling a critique of psychiatry.
References
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Järvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (Eds.) (2003) At skabe en klient. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Karlsson, M., & Börjeson, M. (2011). Brukarmakt I teori och praktik, Stockholm: Natur och kultur.
Lalander, P. (2012). Mellan makt och motstånd. In M. Herz (Ed.), Kritiskt socialt arbete. Malmö: Liber.
Lieblich, A., Tuvak-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative Research: Reading, Analysis and Interpretations, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage.
Lipsky, M. (2010). Street-Level Bureaucracy, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lloyd, M.,, & Carson, A. M. (2012). Critical Conversation: Developing a Methodology for Service User Involvement in Mental Health Nursing, Nurse Education Today, vol. 32, pp. 151–155.
Mattsson, T. (2010). Intersektionalitet I social arbete. Teori, reflektion och praxis. Malmö: Gleerups.
McAdams, D. P. (1998). The Role of Defense in the Life Story, Journal of Personality, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 1125–1146.
Merton, R. K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure, New York: The Free Press.
Mishler, E. G. (1986). Research Interviewing. Context and Narrative, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Möller, T. (1998). Brukarinflytande och konsumentmakt inom äldreomsorgen, Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.
Morgan, A. (2000). What is Narrative Therapy?: An Easy to Read Introduction, Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Öhlén, J. (2001). Lindrat lidande: att vara I en fristad—berättelser från palliativ vård, Nora: Nya Doxa.
Plummer, K. (2001). Documents of Life: 2. An Invitation to a Critical Humanism, London: Sage.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1991). Narrative and Self-Conception, Journal of Narrative and Life History, vol. 1, nos. 2 & 3, pp. 135–153.
Ricoeur, P. (1984). Time and Narrative Vol. 1, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Silverman, D. (2007). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research, London: Sage.
Skott, C. (2004). Berättelsens praktik och teori, Lund: Studentlitteratur. Sparkes, A. C, & Smith, B. (2008). Narrative Constructionist Inquiry. In J. A.
Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds.), Handbook of Constructionist Research, New York: The Guilford Press.
Stickley, T. (2006). Should Service User Involvement be Consigned to History? A Critical Realist Perspective, Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, vol. 13, pp. 570–577.
Thommesen, H. (2010). Master narratives and narratives as told by people with mental health and drug problems, Journal of Comparative Social work, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–16.
Williams, L. Labonte, R., & O’Brien, M. (2003). Empowering social action through narratives of identity and culture, Health Promotion International, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 33–40.
Banks-Wallace, J. (1998). Emancipatory Potential of Storytelling in a Group, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 17–21.
Battersby, J. L. (2006). Narrativity, Self and Self-representation, Narrative, vol. 14, no. 1, 27–44.
Beresford, P., & Croft, S. (2001). Service Users’ Knowledge and the Social Construction of Social Work, Journal of Social Work, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 295–316.
Blickem, C., & Priyadarashini, E. (2007). Patient Narratives: The Potential for “Patient-Centred” Interprofessional Learning?, Journal of Interprofessional Care, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 619–632.
Bohn, A. (2010). Normative Ideas of Life and Autobiographical Reasoning in Life Narratives, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, no. 131, pp. 19–30.
Braye, S. (2000). Participation and Involvement in Social Care. In H. Kemshall, & R. Littlechild (Eds.), User Involvement and Participation in Social Care, London, Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Bruner, J. (1991). The Narrative Construction of Reality, Critical Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1–21.
Bury, M. (2001). Illness narratives: Fact or fiction?, Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 263–285.
Cortazzi, M. (2007). Narrative Analysis in Ethnography. In P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, & L. Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage.
Cotterell, P., Findlay, H., & Macfarlane, A. (2009). Patient and Carer Narratives and Stories. In Y. Gunaratnam & D. Oliviere (Eds.), Narrative and Stories in Health Care. Illness, Dying and Bereavement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
de los Reyes, P., & Mulinari, D. (2005). Intersektionalitet. Kritiska reflektioner över (o)jämlikhetens landskap. Malmö: Liber.
Foucault, M. (1987). Övervakning och straff. Fängelsets födelse, Lund: Arkiv förlag. (Originally published 1975).
Frank, A. W. (1995). The Wounded Storyteller. Body, Illness, and Ethics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Frank, A. W. (1997). Illness as Moral Occasion: Restoring Agency to Ill People, Health, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 131–148.
Frank, A. W. (2000). The Standpoint of the Storyteller, Qualitative Health Research, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 354–365.
Fraser, N. (1989). Unruly Practices. Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gemmae, M. F., Houston, T. K., Barker, A. M., Wexler, L., Cook, N., Volkman, J. E., & Bokhour, B. G. (2012). A Novel Process for Integrating Patient Stories into Patient Education Interventions: Incorporating Lessons from Theatre Arts, Patient Education and Counseling, vol. 88, pp. 455–459.
Greenhalgh, T., & Hurwitz, B. (1999). Why Study Narrative?, BMJ, vol. 318, pp. 48–50.
Haeney, O., Rajesh, M., Taylor, N., & Harrison, T. (2007). Service User Involvement in Psychiatric Training: A Practical Perspective, The Psychiatrist, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 312–314.
Halldórsdóttir, S., & Hamrin, E. (1997). Caring and Uncaring Encounters within Nursing and Health Care from the Cancer Patient’s Perspective, Cancer nursing, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 120–128.
Hansson, L., Jormfeldt, H., Svedberg, P., & Svensson, B. (2013). Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes Towards People with Mental Illness: Do They Differ from Attitudes Held by People with Mental Illness?, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 48–54.
Harding, S. (1998). Is Science Multi-Cultural?: Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hardy, S., Titchen, A., & Manley, K. (2007). Patient Narratives in the Investigation and Development of Nursing Practice Expertise: A Potential for Transformation, Nursing Inquiry, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 80–88.
Hasenfeld, Y. (2010). The Attributes of Human Service Organizations. In Y. Hasenfeld (Ed.), Human Services as Complex Organizations, Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Hayward, M.,, West, S., Green, M., & Blank, A. (2005). Service Innovations: Service User Involvement in Training: Case Study, the Psychiatrist, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 428–430.
Hodge, S. (2005). Participation, Discourse and Power: A Case Study in Service User Involvement, Critical Social Policy, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 164–179.
Holstein, J. F., & Gubrium, J. (2007). “Context: Working It Up, Down and Across.” In C. Seale, G. Gobo, J. F. Gubrium, & D. Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative Research Practice, London: Sage.
Hyden, L.-C. (1997). Illness and Narrative, Sociology of Health and Illness, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 48–69.
Järvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (Eds.) (2003) At skabe en klient. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Karlsson, M., & Börjeson, M. (2011). Brukarmakt I teori och praktik, Stockholm: Natur och kultur.
Lalander, P. (2012). Mellan makt och motstånd. In M. Herz (Ed.), Kritiskt socialt arbete. Malmö: Liber.
Lieblich, A., Tuvak-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative Research: Reading, Analysis and Interpretations, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage.
Lipsky, M. (2010). Street-Level Bureaucracy, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lloyd, M.,, & Carson, A. M. (2012). Critical Conversation: Developing a Methodology for Service User Involvement in Mental Health Nursing, Nurse Education Today, vol. 32, pp. 151–155.
Mattsson, T. (2010). Intersektionalitet I social arbete. Teori, reflektion och praxis. Malmö: Gleerups.
McAdams, D. P. (1998). The Role of Defense in the Life Story, Journal of Personality, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 1125–1146.
Merton, R. K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure, New York: The Free Press.
Mishler, E. G. (1986). Research Interviewing. Context and Narrative, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Möller, T. (1998). Brukarinflytande och konsumentmakt inom äldreomsorgen, Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.
Morgan, A. (2000). What is Narrative Therapy?: An Easy to Read Introduction, Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Öhlén, J. (2001). Lindrat lidande: att vara I en fristad—berättelser från palliativ vård, Nora: Nya Doxa.
Plummer, K. (2001). Documents of Life: 2. An Invitation to a Critical Humanism, London: Sage.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1991). Narrative and Self-Conception, Journal of Narrative and Life History, vol. 1, nos. 2 & 3, pp. 135–153.
Ricoeur, P. (1984). Time and Narrative Vol. 1, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Silverman, D. (2007). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research, London: Sage.
Skott, C. (2004). Berättelsens praktik och teori, Lund: Studentlitteratur. Sparkes, A. C, & Smith, B. (2008). Narrative Constructionist Inquiry. In J. A.
Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds.), Handbook of Constructionist Research, New York: The Guilford Press.
Stickley, T. (2006). Should Service User Involvement be Consigned to History? A Critical Realist Perspective, Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, vol. 13, pp. 570–577.
Thommesen, H. (2010). Master narratives and narratives as told by people with mental health and drug problems, Journal of Comparative Social work, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–16.
Williams, L. Labonte, R., & O’Brien, M. (2003). Empowering social action through narratives of identity and culture, Health Promotion International, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 33–40.
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2013-10-01
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Eriksson, E. (2013). To tell the right story: Functions of the personal user narrative in service user involvement. Journal of Comparative Social Work, 8(2), 251–281. https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v8i2.103
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