Narrative research on mental health recovery: two sister paradigms

Abstract

Background: Despite the breadth of narrative studies on individuals with severe mental illness, the suitability of narrative inquiry to exploring mental health recovery (MHR) has not been examined.

Aims: (1) Examining the appropriateness of narrative inquiry to studying MHR; (2) assessing the extent to which narrative studies on MHR conform to the unique features of narrative research, as a distinctive form of qualitative inquiry.

Methods: Review of empirical, theoretical and methodological literature on recovery and narrative inquiry.

Results: Considering the perspectives of recovery and narrative as paradigms, the similarity between their ontology and epistemology is shown, evident in 10 common emphases: meaning, identity, change and development, agency, holism, culture, uniqueness, context, language and giving voice. The resemblance between these “sister” paradigms makes narrative methodology especially fruitful for accessing the experiences of individuals in recovery. Reviewing narrative studies on MHR suggests that, currently, narrative research’s uniqueness, centered on the holistic principle, is blurred on the philosophical, methodological and textual levels.

Conclusions: Well-established narrative research has major implications for practice and policy in recovery-oriented mental health care. The narrative inquiry paradigm offers a possible path to enhancing the distinctive virtues of this research, realizing its potential in understanding and promoting MHR.

• Mental health recovery
• narrative
• narrative research
• narrative paradigm
• recovery paradigm
• severe mental illness

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks are extended to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and comments on a draft of this article.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We are grateful to the anonymous reviewer for this valuable insight.