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Boden‐Stuart, Zoe V.R.; Larkin, Michael and Harrop, Chris
(2021).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12337
Abstract
Objectives
Most existing research on the family context of psychosis focuses on the ‘burden’ of caring for people experiencing psychosis. This research is the first to ask young people experiencing early psychosis to ‘map’ and describe their experiences and understandings of their family relationships, and how they have related to their psychosis and recovery.
Design
The research took an inductive, multimodal hermeneutic–phenomenological approach (Boden, Larkin & Iyer, 2019, Qual. Res. Psychology, 16, 218-236; Boden & Larkin, 2020, A handbook of visual methods in psychology, 358-375).
Method
Ten young adults (18–23), under the care of early intervention in psychosis services in the UK, participated in an innovative relational mapping interview (Boden, Larkin & Iyer, 2018), which invited participants to draw a subjective ‘map’ of their important relationships. This visual methodology enables subtle, complex, ambivalent, and ambiguous aspects of the participants’ experiences to be explored.
Results
Findings explore the participants’ accounts of how they love, protect, and care for their families; how they wrestle with family ties as they mature; and their feelings about talking about their mental health with loved ones, which was typically very difficult.
Conclusions
This paper advances understanding of recovery in psychosis through consideration of the importance of reciprocity, and the identification and nurturance of relational strengths. The capacity of a young person to withdraw or hold back when trying to protect others is understood as an example of relational agency. The possibility for extending strengths-based approaches and family work within the context of early intervention in psychosis services is discussed.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
