Most psychologists' knowledge of mental health is limited to what they remember from undergr... more Most psychologists' knowledge of mental health is limited to what they remember from undergraduate 'abnormal psychology'courses. Yet a recent survey we conducted, funded by the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (Cromby et al., in press) found that the vast majority of these courses use textbooks structured by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; present very dated critiques of psychiatry; and fail to develop a specifically psychological approach to their ...
This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to ... more This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription. Author(s): Harper, David J.
Little is known about ordinary people’s understandings of conspiracy beliefs and how these unders... more Little is known about ordinary people’s understandings of conspiracy beliefs and how these understandings relate to the perspectives of researchers and scholars. Working within a social constructionist epistemological framework, we conducted a Q-methodology study aiming to identify a range of lay perspectives on two key topics: the defining features of conspiracy beliefs; and aspects considered important in judging their plausibility. Fifty-six people (32 men and 24 women), recruited via regional UK Facebook groups, sorted their agreement with a set of statements on each of the two topics. A principal component analysis, followed by varimax rotation, was performed on each data set. Five accounts about the defining features of conspiracy beliefs were identified: that they are false, illogical and harmful; that they are forms of political critique; that there are varied types; that they are entertaining but ineffectual; and that they are held by a self-reinforcing minority. Four accounts about their evaluation were identified: conventional realist criteria; the importance of personal judgement; skeptical realism; and the assessment of critical thinking. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature and limitations of the study are considered. Implications for research and educational and policy interventions are outlined.
The Routledge International Handbook of Discrimination, Prejudice and Stereotyping, 2021
This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Glob... more This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Global North and that it tends to adopt an implicitly biomedical framework, to utilise psychiatric diagnostic categories in an uncritical manner and draws heavily on stigma-based conceptualisations. The extent of mental health discrimination against those with psychiatric diagnoses is discussed including research on public attitudes. A number of causal factors are reviewed, including the role of the media. However, it is argued that biomedically-oriented and stigma-based conceptualisations are problematic and that a perspective focused on epistemic injustice is preferable. Extracts from a qualitative study based on interviews with mental health service users are presented, illustrating how people with psychiatric diagnoses respond to prejudice and discrimination and the varied strategies they use to manage it. Interventions to counter prejudice and discrimination are reviewed with a focus on their underlying conceptual assumptions (e.g. comparing biomedically-oriented and psychosocially-oriented approaches). The chapter ends with a discussion of potential future avenues for research and practice.
Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justificati... more Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justification for the use of normalising practices within cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. These studies have found that, contrary to mainstream psychiatric assumptions, beliefs considered delusional are neither rare in the general population nor qualitatively different from “nondelusional” beliefs, whilst theories from a “normal” rather than “abnormal” psychology have shown them to be intelligible rather than un-understandable. Yet the programme’s inherent limitations have meant that the potential of nonclinical research has not been fully realised. An alternative research programme is proposed which could elucidate the diversity of belief in the general population by examining the role of social norms and lived belief narratives in unconventional belief communities. This could address the limitations of the normalising programme, provide a necessary corrective to the “clinician’s illusi...
Although histories of cognitive behaviour therapy have begun to appear, their use with people wit... more Although histories of cognitive behaviour therapy have begun to appear, their use with people with psychosis diagnoses has received relatively little attention. In this article, we elucidate the conditions of possibility for the emergence of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (CBTp) in England between 1982 and 2002. We present an analysis of policy documents, research publications and books, participant observation, and interviews with a group of leading researchers and senior policy actors. Informed by Derksen and Beaulieu’s articulation of social technologies, we show how CBTp was developed and stabilised through the work of a variety of overlapping informal, academic, clinical, professional, and policy networks. The profession of clinical psychology played a key role in this development, successfully challenging the traditional ‘division of labour’ where psychologists focused on ‘neurosis’ and left ‘psychosis’ to psychiatry. Following Abbott's systems approach to profe...
How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and ex... more How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and experiences which attract a diagnosis of psychosis and what implications does this have for women with these diagnoses? Drawing on a broadly critical realist framework, we present data from two studies relevant to these questions. First, we analyse the discursive practices engaged in during a staff-only discussion of a female in-patient with a psychosis diagnosis who had been raped some years previously. Staff oriented to the irrationality and factuality of her ostensibly delusional statements about rape and pregnancy in the present and formulated adverse experience as a “stress factor” triggering a manic episode, thereby precluding alternative contextualising interpretations. In a second, interview-based, study, psychiatrists drew on a range of discursive resources which differentiated “psychosis” from other forms of distress, constructed trauma as a stressor which could trigger psychosis...
The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are... more The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are ethereal yet material, geographical yet trans-geographical. Contemporary surveillance systems form numerous connections that involve multiple times, spaces, and bodies. Owing to their ubiquity, normalization, and yet clandestine characteristics, they seem to produce an almost unnoticed aspect of everyday life. The impacts, then, of contemporary surveillance systems appear to be particularly experienced on the margins of consciousness. Thus we find that an empirical analysis of this realm of experience is possible but requires one to look for such things as disruption, disfluency, and hesitation in the text of speech acts rather than clear representation. Through empirical analysis of narratives concerning everyday experiences of living with contemporary surveillance systems, this paper focuses on their possible affective impacts. In turn, we find it more fitting to think about the so-ca...
In this article I discuss dilemmas which arise as psychologists and service users work more close... more In this article I discuss dilemmas which arise as psychologists and service users work more closely together, in particular when the clinical psychology profession presupposes that its interests and those of service users are synonymous when they may not be.
Most psychologists' knowledge of mental health is limited to what they remember from undergr... more Most psychologists' knowledge of mental health is limited to what they remember from undergraduate 'abnormal psychology'courses. Yet a recent survey we conducted, funded by the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (Cromby et al., in press) found that the vast majority of these courses use textbooks structured by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; present very dated critiques of psychiatry; and fail to develop a specifically psychological approach to their ...
This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to ... more This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription. Author(s): Harper, David J.
Little is known about ordinary people’s understandings of conspiracy beliefs and how these unders... more Little is known about ordinary people’s understandings of conspiracy beliefs and how these understandings relate to the perspectives of researchers and scholars. Working within a social constructionist epistemological framework, we conducted a Q-methodology study aiming to identify a range of lay perspectives on two key topics: the defining features of conspiracy beliefs; and aspects considered important in judging their plausibility. Fifty-six people (32 men and 24 women), recruited via regional UK Facebook groups, sorted their agreement with a set of statements on each of the two topics. A principal component analysis, followed by varimax rotation, was performed on each data set. Five accounts about the defining features of conspiracy beliefs were identified: that they are false, illogical and harmful; that they are forms of political critique; that there are varied types; that they are entertaining but ineffectual; and that they are held by a self-reinforcing minority. Four accounts about their evaluation were identified: conventional realist criteria; the importance of personal judgement; skeptical realism; and the assessment of critical thinking. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature and limitations of the study are considered. Implications for research and educational and policy interventions are outlined.
The Routledge International Handbook of Discrimination, Prejudice and Stereotyping, 2021
This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Glob... more This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Global North and that it tends to adopt an implicitly biomedical framework, to utilise psychiatric diagnostic categories in an uncritical manner and draws heavily on stigma-based conceptualisations. The extent of mental health discrimination against those with psychiatric diagnoses is discussed including research on public attitudes. A number of causal factors are reviewed, including the role of the media. However, it is argued that biomedically-oriented and stigma-based conceptualisations are problematic and that a perspective focused on epistemic injustice is preferable. Extracts from a qualitative study based on interviews with mental health service users are presented, illustrating how people with psychiatric diagnoses respond to prejudice and discrimination and the varied strategies they use to manage it. Interventions to counter prejudice and discrimination are reviewed with a focus on their underlying conceptual assumptions (e.g. comparing biomedically-oriented and psychosocially-oriented approaches). The chapter ends with a discussion of potential future avenues for research and practice.
Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justificati... more Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justification for the use of normalising practices within cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. These studies have found that, contrary to mainstream psychiatric assumptions, beliefs considered delusional are neither rare in the general population nor qualitatively different from “nondelusional” beliefs, whilst theories from a “normal” rather than “abnormal” psychology have shown them to be intelligible rather than un-understandable. Yet the programme’s inherent limitations have meant that the potential of nonclinical research has not been fully realised. An alternative research programme is proposed which could elucidate the diversity of belief in the general population by examining the role of social norms and lived belief narratives in unconventional belief communities. This could address the limitations of the normalising programme, provide a necessary corrective to the “clinician’s illusi...
Although histories of cognitive behaviour therapy have begun to appear, their use with people wit... more Although histories of cognitive behaviour therapy have begun to appear, their use with people with psychosis diagnoses has received relatively little attention. In this article, we elucidate the conditions of possibility for the emergence of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (CBTp) in England between 1982 and 2002. We present an analysis of policy documents, research publications and books, participant observation, and interviews with a group of leading researchers and senior policy actors. Informed by Derksen and Beaulieu’s articulation of social technologies, we show how CBTp was developed and stabilised through the work of a variety of overlapping informal, academic, clinical, professional, and policy networks. The profession of clinical psychology played a key role in this development, successfully challenging the traditional ‘division of labour’ where psychologists focused on ‘neurosis’ and left ‘psychosis’ to psychiatry. Following Abbott's systems approach to profe...
How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and ex... more How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and experiences which attract a diagnosis of psychosis and what implications does this have for women with these diagnoses? Drawing on a broadly critical realist framework, we present data from two studies relevant to these questions. First, we analyse the discursive practices engaged in during a staff-only discussion of a female in-patient with a psychosis diagnosis who had been raped some years previously. Staff oriented to the irrationality and factuality of her ostensibly delusional statements about rape and pregnancy in the present and formulated adverse experience as a “stress factor” triggering a manic episode, thereby precluding alternative contextualising interpretations. In a second, interview-based, study, psychiatrists drew on a range of discursive resources which differentiated “psychosis” from other forms of distress, constructed trauma as a stressor which could trigger psychosis...
The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are... more The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are ethereal yet material, geographical yet trans-geographical. Contemporary surveillance systems form numerous connections that involve multiple times, spaces, and bodies. Owing to their ubiquity, normalization, and yet clandestine characteristics, they seem to produce an almost unnoticed aspect of everyday life. The impacts, then, of contemporary surveillance systems appear to be particularly experienced on the margins of consciousness. Thus we find that an empirical analysis of this realm of experience is possible but requires one to look for such things as disruption, disfluency, and hesitation in the text of speech acts rather than clear representation. Through empirical analysis of narratives concerning everyday experiences of living with contemporary surveillance systems, this paper focuses on their possible affective impacts. In turn, we find it more fitting to think about the so-ca...
In this article I discuss dilemmas which arise as psychologists and service users work more close... more In this article I discuss dilemmas which arise as psychologists and service users work more closely together, in particular when the clinical psychology profession presupposes that its interests and those of service users are synonymous when they may not be.
Routledge international handbook of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping
This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Glob... more This chapter begins by noting that the majority of the research reviewed originates from the Global North and that it tends to adopt an implicitly biomedical framework, to utilise psychiatric diagnostic categories in an uncritical manner and draws heavily on stigma-based conceptualisations. The extent of mental health discrimination against those with psychiatric diagnoses is discussed including research on public attitudes. A number of causal factors are reviewed, including the role of the media. However, it is argued that biomedically-oriented and stigma-based conceptualisations are problematic and that a perspective focused on epistemic injustice is preferable. Extracts from a qualitative study based on interviews with mental health service users are presented, illustrating how people with psychiatric diagnoses respond to prejudice and discrimination and the varied strategies they use to manage it. Interventions to counter prejudice and discrimination are reviewed with a focus on their underlying conceptual assumptions (e.g. comparing biomedically-oriented and psychosocially-oriented approaches). The chapter ends with a discussion of potential future avenues for research and practice.
Chapter to appear in: N. Moller, A. Vossler, D. Jones & D. Kaposi (eds) (in press), Understandin... more Chapter to appear in: N. Moller, A. Vossler, D. Jones & D. Kaposi (eds) (in press), Understanding mental health and counselling. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) i... more The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) in 2018, is an attempt to address the question of how we might understand what Harry Stack Sullivan called ‘problems in living’ other than by using psychiatric diagnostic systems. How might we best conceptualize emotional distress and behaviour which might concern or trouble others? We describe the context within which the PTMF was developed and explain some of its key elements before giving an overview of the articles in this special issue.
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