Communities, psychotherapeutic innovation and the diversity of international qualitative research in mental health

Abstract

ABSTRACThe articles in this special issue are hugely varied in terms of their country of origin (Brazil, Finland, Italy, Malaysia and the UK); theoretical influences (e.g. Lacanian theory, cultural-historical approaches and relational theories) and method of qualitative analysis (e.g. content and thematic analyses, Lacanian discourse analysis, Grounded theory, ethnography and auto-ethnography). In this commentary, I will discuss each article in turn before moving on to address some common issues including: the relationship between therapeutic innovation and research; differing implicit models of subjectivity; the need for theoretically pluralistic approaches to interpretation; and the need to incorporate the views of service users.