Pentadic Cartography: Mapping Postpartum Psychosis Narratives

Abstract

<jats:p> Writing online narratives of postpartum psychosis allows both self-analysis and catharsis and can also be viewed as a type of sociopolitical expression. Eight narratives posted on the Action on Postpartum Psychosis website were analyzed using Burke’s narrative analysis. This method focuses on a pentad of key elements of story: scene, act, purpose, agent, and agency. What drives this narrative analysis is the identification of problematic areas referred to as ratio imbalances between any two of these five terms. The ratio imbalance between Agent and Act appeared most often in these eight narratives. The agent was the mother and the act most often was either her hallucinations or delusions. The second most frequent area of tension was between Scene and Agent. Problematic scenes for the agent (mother) involved admission to the psychiatric ward, entering the electroconvulsive therapy room, or nighttime. These ratio imbalances pinpoint places where clinicians can target specific interventions. </jats:p>

Posttraumatic Growth after Postpartum Psychosis

“…Beck (2020a) conducted a narrative analysis of eight first-person stories of postpartum psychosis that were posted on the Action on Postpartum Psychosis website. Burke's (1969) method of narrative analysis provided the key elements of story: scene, act, purpose, agent, and agency.…”

“…Burke's method focuses on identifying problematic areas, known as ratio imbalances, between any two of these elements. The ratio imbalance that appeared most frequently in these eight narratives was between the agent (the woman) and the psychological act of her delusions or hallucinations (Beck, 2020a). The ratio imbalance between scene to agent was the second most often problematic area identified.…”

“…Four recent qualitative studies provide insight into the experience of postpartum psychosis by using women's own voices (Beck, 2020a(Beck, , 2020bForde et al, 2019;Jefferies et al, 2021;Wass et al, 2022). None of these studies, however, specifically examined posttraumatic growth.…”

Speaking Shame and Laughing It Off: Using Humorous Narrative to Conquer the Shame of Anorectal Illness

“…Several narrative themes may emerge from a story, including the absence of regret, certainty about the decision, and resistance to internalizing feelings of shame (Purcell et al, 2020). Fifth, the public telling of personal stories can serve a communal function by providing support to people with similar illnesses and raising public awareness about the disease (Beck, 2020). Realizing that other people have similar feelings implies a public normalization of personal experiences (Trondsen & Tjora, 2014).…”

Moving Beyond Text-and-Talk in Qualitative Health Research: Methodological Considerations of Using Multiple Media for Data Collection

“…The sustained growth and versatility of arts-based approaches to research and the ever-expanding prominence of qualitative methods makes this an exciting time to be a qualitative health researcher. Qualitative methods have a long-standing and well-established place in health research, and the expansion in the range of qualitative methods has seen increasing use of approaches to data collection which rely on more than just text-and-talk, including photovoice (Aparicio et al, 2020; Greene et al, 2018; Han & Oliffe, 2016; Hunt et al, 2018; Macdonald et al, 2019; Watchman et al, 2020), digital and other forms of storytelling (Bulk et al, 2020; de Jager et al, 2017; Douglas & Carless, 2018; Greene et al, 2018; Moreau et al, 2018; Tatano Beck, 2020), walking methodologies (Springgay & Truman, 2017), video methods (Baumann, Lhaki, & Burke, 2020; Hansen, 2018), theater methods (Bleuer et al, 2018; Erel et al, 2017; Parent et al, 2017; Torrissen & Stickley, 2018), and a range of other arts-based methods (Candy & Edmonds, 2017; Chamberlain et al, 2018; Coemans & Hannes, 2017; Hammond et al, 2018; Wolf, 2011). A recent review of arts-based methods with vulnerable populations (Coemans & Hannes, 2017) shows that researchers in this field are using an array of media across different arts modalities, although photographic-based methods dominate in the field, with theater-based methods a distant second.…”