Troubling ‘lived experience’: a post‐structural critique of mental health nursing qualitative research assumptions

Abstract

Qualitative studies in mental health nursing research deploying the 'lived experience' construct are often written on the basis of conventional qualitative inquiry assumptions. These include the presentation of the 'authentic voice' of research participants, related to their 'lived experience' and underpinned by a meta-assumption of the 'metaphysics of presence'. This set of assumptions is critiqued on the basis of contemporary post-structural qualitative scholarship. Implications for mental health nursing qualitative research emerging from this critique are described in relation to illustrative published work, and some benefits and challenges for researchers embracing post-structural sensibilities are outlined.

Putting ‘quality’ in qualitative research: a guide to grounded theory for mental health nurses

“…Grounded theory also offers researchers an opportunity to collect data in the most fitting way for each population, or even each individual, through its ‘all is data’ principle. This method does not rely on the ‘voice’ as ‘an innocent and straightforward way to account for a “self” ’, a common pitfall of qualitative research in the mental health field (Grant ). For example, recent studies suggest that, due to learning style preferences and sensory issues, individuals with autism spectrum disorders may prefer communication through art, songwriting, and online groups (Baker et al .…”

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

“…Having previously challenged implicit philosophical assumptions apparent in such work, around ‘authentic voice’ related to ‘lived‐experience’, from a poststructural researcher standpoint perspective (Grant, ), my aim in this study was to extend this critique. On the basis of my argument that phenomenological‐humanist representational practices in mental health nursing qualitative inquiry often lack adequate levels of theoretical and cultural reflexivity (Grant, ), I will further unpack and trouble these practices from an explicitly posthumanist philosophical position. I will do so on the basis of both posthumanist and related writing, and my own single‐ and co‐authored publications that cohere with this philosophical standpoint.…”

Researching outside the box: Welcoming innovative qualitative inquiry to nurse education today

“…At a general level, this standpoint takes issue with assumptions of the sufficiency and coherence of the literal voice, and individual and group identities of participants and researchers, which are evident in normative qualitative designs (Grant, 2014). This has implications for representing such identities: the ambiguity and contradictions within and between individuals and their lives makes any assumed gross similarities between research participants problematic, confounding the forms of colonising representational and thematic practices routinely found in normative qualitative papers (Grant, 2014).…”

“…This has implications for representing such identities: the ambiguity and contradictions within and between individuals and their lives makes any assumed gross similarities between research participants problematic, confounding the forms of colonising representational and thematic practices routinely found in normative qualitative papers (Grant, 2014).…”

“…With co-researcher colleagues from nursing and other disciplines, and the mental health survivor communities, I have for several years been associated with a standpoint position that values critical, poststructural and highly reflexive forms qualitative inquiry (Grant, 2014, Grant et al, 2013.…”