Storying the world: a posthumanist critique of phenomenological‐humanist representational practices in mental health nurse qualitative inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to build on my previously published critique of phenomenological-humanist representational practices in mental health nursing qualitative inquiry. I will unpack and trouble these practices from an explicitly posthumanist philosophical position on the basis of seminal posthumanist texts and my own single-and coauthored work. My argument will be that researchers in mental health nurse qualitative inquiry, who display a phenomenological-humanist narrative bent in their writing, continually endorse the validity of the institutional psychiatric assumptions, practices and ways of representing human psychological distress. These are all explicitly rejected in more critical forms of qualitative inquiry in mental health, including in my own work. I will conclude that the use of phenomenological-humanist representational practices, in mental health nursing and by implication and extension other healthcare disciplines, is un-ethical, un-empathic and morally compromised. This is because such practices present accounts of the worlds of mental health service users, survivors and carers that lack necessary and sufficient levels of criticality and context.

Toward an ontology of the mutant in the health sciences: Re/defining the person from Cronenberg's perspective

“…Our discussions led us to identify the field of cultural studies, and more specifically, the cinema of David Cronenberg as one way to support this speculation. Seldomly problematized, except by a few postmodern scholars in the disciplines of health sciences (Adam et al, 2021(Adam et al, , 2023Dillard-Wright & Shields-Haas, 2021;Dillard-Wright et al, 2020;Grant, 2016;Sandelowski, 2002) commonly accepted humanistic principles and values in nursing's conceptual models, theories, and practice represent a prime example of an established norm. These theories thus became the target of our collective critique, as we believe that emerging critical scholarship must continue to question taken-for-granted definitions (and assumptions) of the person based solely on humanism, and must do so fiercely, given the consequences (Adam, Jiang, et al, 2022;Adam et al, 2021Adam et al, , 2023.…”

Implementing peer support work in mental health care in Germany: The methodological framework of the collaborative, participatory, mixed‐methods study (ImpPeer‐Psy5)

“…To navigate this complexity, the labels 'researchers with and without lived experiences (= LE)' will be used, as this difference turned out to be central in relation to our research topic. At the same time, we are aware of the critique surrounding the concept of 'lived experience', both in itself 54,55 and of its application in relation to PSW. 54 F I G U R E 1 Interconnected work streams, using different data collection methods with the aim to integrate the results.…”

In Praise of Subjectivity: My involvement with autoethnography, and why I think you should be interested.

“…This is what my autoethnographic colleagues and I have endeavoured to do over the last two decades. My own single and joint authored autoethnographic and autoethnography-related work has included: writing about my own breakdown and recovery (Grant, 2010a(Grant, ,b, 2018a(Grant, , 2020aGrant and Zeeman, 2012;Grant, et al, 2011;Short, et al, 2007); critiquing mainstream mental health and mental health nurse education (Grant, 2011(Grant, , 2014(Grant, , 2015(Grant, , 2016abc, 2018b(Grant, , 2019Grant & Radcliffe, 2015;Grant & Barlow, 2016;Grant & Gadsby, 2018;Grant, et al, 2015a,b;Klevan, et al, 2016;Naish, et al, 2016;Short & Grant, 2016;Zeeman, et al, 2014a,b); and critiquing higher education qualitative research culture more broadly (Grant, 2014(Grant, , 2016c.…”