Service user/survivor-led research in mental health: epistemological possibilities

Abstract

This paper considers possible epistemologies for user-led and survivor research by drawing on four discourses: the mainstream English tradition, Canadian Mad Studies, critical theory more generally and feminist standpoint epistemology. It discusses general, universalising epistemologies, the extent to which these characterise the discourses at stake and the problems with knowledge claims that rest on such singular conceptualisations. The institutional and political concomitants are considered. The paper has an additional double aim: to engage with survivor scholarship around critical theory and to insert that scholarship into the field of critical theory itself in a novel manner.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• service user and survivor led research
• epistemology
• praxis

Acknowledgements

This article has benefited from discussions with Alison Faulkner, whom the author thanks. The author would also like to thank the reviewers of a previous version of this manuscript.

Notes

1. www.invo.org.uk accessed April 27, 2017.

2. www.shapingourlives.org.uk accessed April 27, 2017.

3. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/depts/hspr/research/ciemh/sure/index.aspx accessed April 27, 2017.

4. https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/02/sir-robin-murray-collective-mea-culpa/, https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/01/researcher-acknowledges-mistakes-understanding-schizophrenia/ Accessed April 27, 2017.