Phenomenological interpretation of psychotic communication

This paper is developed from the author’s reflection on working with Teams and Psychotic client whilst observing communication between the two and how it could suffer at times, especially when background information on a... [ view full abstract ]

This paper is developed from the author’s reflection on working with Teams and Psychotic client whilst observing communication between the two and how it could suffer at times, especially when background information on a client is not available or is very limited (e.g. Acute referrals to Forensic teams).

In medical literature, delusions are nosologically linked to diagnosis of Schizophrenia which forms the way teams view and usually respond to it. Its meaning is not routinely utilised outside the remit of Psychiatric opinions and are rarely seen as a form of expression of complex and difficult material. A lack of ability to recognise that is likely to impair on a good relationship between the team and a patient.

The paper presents the author’s attempt to give such patient a voice by means of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). There are some basic principles of IPA which are deemed to be particularly relevant to Psychosis research, such as IPA’s concern with understanding of lived experience and how those experiences are made sense of; IPA also sees research as a dynamic process aimed at understanding of the participant’s subjective world (Larking et al., 2006).

In this instance, the data was collated from clinical records and was later analysed and interpreted within IPA protocol.

The author argues that delusional content should not be ignored or easily dismissed because of its disjointed appearance. IPA, on the other hand, has potency to inform Psychological Formulation especially in cases where access to resources; analytic knowledge and past history is limited.

The paper is therefore aimed at giving a brief introduction to methodology whilst keeping the main focus on emerging themes. It is based on a specific case example.