Leveraging the Strengths of Psychologists With Lived Experience of Psychopathology

Abstract

Psychopathology is a common element of the human experience, and psychological scientists are not immune. Recent empirical data demonstrate that a significant proportion of clinical, counseling, and school psychology faculty and graduate students have lived experience, both past and present, of psychopathology. This commentary compliments these findings by leveraging the perspectives of the authors and signatories, who have personal lived experience of psychopathology, to improve professional inclusivity in these fields. By “coming out proud,” the authors aim to foster discussion, research, and inclusion efforts as they relate to psychopathology experiences in psychological science. To that end, the authors describe considerations related to disclosure of lived experience, identify barriers to inclusion, and provide concrete recommendations for personal and systemic changes to improve recognition and acceptance of psychopathology lived experience among psychologists.

Stigmatizing Our Own: Self-Relevant Research (Me-Search) Is Common but Frowned Upon in Clinical Psychological Science

“…Our data speak to the need for intentional advocacy and antistigma efforts within our field to ensure greater acceptance, inclusion, and safety of people with lived experience of mental health difficulties. Direct efforts might include identifying and reducing structural obstacles that prevent people with lived experience from seeking help or disclosing their lived experience, while also increasing incentives for consideration of self-relevant research and psychopathology in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts (for recommendations, see Victor, Schleider, et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, recognizing stakeholders—such as Linehan, Hinshaw, and Joiner—who might be inclined to identify, empathize with, and advocate for, underrepresented groups can promote diverse perspectives on important but understudied research topics (Jones et al, 2021). Lastly, better understanding perceptions of self-relevant research among those in the field would facilitate efforts to improve acceptance and mentorship of people who engage in self-relevant research (Victor, Schleider, et al, 2022). In these respects, studying self-relevant research provides an important window into the profession’s values, interests, and identities (including lived experience of mental illness; Jones et al, 2021; Neblett, 2019).…”

The fundamental need for lived experience perspectives in developing and evaluating psychotherapies.

“…For instance, in a survey of ∼1,700 applied psychologists and trainees in North America, >80% reported experiencing mental health problems at some point in their lives (Victor, Devendorf, et al, 2022). My colleagues and I have argued for the need to leverage of the strengths of psychologist EBEs (Victor, Schleider, et al, 2022), such as the integration of psychologist EBE perspectives into our field’s research. However, given inherent power differentials and divergent lived experiences between scientist and nonscientist EBEs, the perspectives of scientist EBEs cannot replace those of nonscientist EBEs in treatment design and evaluation.…”

Destigmatizing Borderline Personality Disorder: A Call to Action for Psychological Science

“…Just as mental illness stigma hampers disclosure broadly (Corrigan et al, 2016), institutional stigma associated with BPD may inhibit those within the field from disclosing personal experience in professional contexts, thus increasing the apparent divide between people living with BPD and the researchers who study them. Lived experience of psychopathology is common for researchers and clinicians and can be in many ways a valuable asset (Victor et al, 2022). Recently, a scholar summarized a range of publications advising graduate school applicants not to disclose personal experiences of mental illness generally and speculated that “me-search,” a pejorative term referring to conducting research related to one’s own experience of illness, may have been a “kiss of death” for his research proposal (Devendorf, 2022).…”