Living Outside Mental Illness: Qualitative Studies of Recovery in Schizophrenia

241 Pages·2003·5.92 MB·English

by  Larry Davidson

LIVING OUTSIDE MENTAL ILLNESS
QUALITATIVE STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY
This series showcases the power and possibility of qualitative work in psychology.
Books feature detailed and vivid accounts of qualitative psychology research using a
variety of methods, including participant observation and fieldwork, discursive and
textual analyses, and critical cultural history. They probe vital issues of theory, im­
plementation, interpretation, representation, and ethics that qualitative workers
confront. The series mission is to enlarge and refine the repertoire of qualitative ap­
proaches to psychology.
GENERAL EDITORS

Michelle Fine and Jeanne Marecek

Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers
Niobe Way
Negotiating Consent in Psychotherapy
Patrick O’Neill
Flirting with Danger: Young Women’s Reflections on Sexuality
and Domination
Lynn M. Phillips
Voted Out: The Psychological Consequences of Anti-Gay Politics
Glenda M. Russell
Inner City Kids: Adolescents Confront Life and Violence
in an Urban Community
Alice McIntyre
From Subjects to Subjectivities: A Handbook of Interpretive and
Participatory Methods
Edited by Deborah L. Tolman and Mary Brydon-Miller
Growing Up Girl: Psychosocial Explorations of Gender and Class
Valerie Walkerdine, Helen Lucey, and June Melody
Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on
Sexuality and Identity
Aída Hurtado
Situating Sadness: Women and Depression in Social Context
Edited by Janet M. Stoppard and Linda M. McMullen
Living Outside Mental Illness: Qualitative Studies of Recovery
in Schizophrenia
Larry Davidson
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
LIVING OUTSIDE MENTAL ILLNESS

Qualitative Studies of Recovery in Schizophrenia
L A R R Y D A V I D S O N
■ ■ ■ ■
Foreword by John S. Strauss
New York Un ivers i ty Press
a
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London

© 2003 by New York University

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davidson, Larry.

Living outside mental illness : qualitative studies of recovery in

schizophrenia / Larry Davidson.

p. cm. — (Qualitative studies in psychology)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8147-1942-2 (alk. paper)

ISBN 0-8147-1943-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Schizophrenia. 2. Qualitative research. 3. Phenomenology.

I. Title. II. Series.

RC514.D276 2003

616.89'82—dc21 2003007022

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
To all those people who had
the generosity of spirit to
share their lives with us;
and to my wife, Maryanne,
whose love provides the
ground for me to stand on.
Contents
■ ■ ■ ■
Foreword by John S. Strauss ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1./ Is There an Outside to Mental Illness? 31
(With Maria O’Connell, David Sells, and Martha Staeheli)
2. Eliciting Narratives 61
3. Understanding Narratives 93
4. Living Inside Schizophrenia 126
5. Living Outside Schizophrenia 159
Conclusion 199
Epilogue 210
Works Cited 213
Index 225
About the Author 228
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Foreword
John S. Strauss, M.D.
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Yale University
Let’s say you were living with a large group who, a couple of gen­
erations earlier, had made a very difficult journey west across a huge plain.
They had had to develop from nothing the means of making that journey.
Now, all of you are there at the edge of the mountains where they had set­
tled. Some have made journeys into the mountain passes but never very
far. You, on the other hand, want to go farther. But you have to develop
means for crossing huge streams, for climbing steep rock faces, and you
have gotten farther than anyone ever had. Now you have returned and are
trying to describe what you had discovered to the people from the plain.
You are surprised and saddened by many of the responses they make.
“You shouldn’t have wasted your time. The real, the serious world is
over here.”
“You were just playing, instead of doing something really useful.”
“We’ve seen mountains before. We see them every day. What could you
be thinking? Just look there.”
You try to explain that farther on it’s different, that they really haven’t
understood that. They haven’t seen the massive waterfalls, the huge rock
slides, the way the trees grow up that protect the mountainsides. And there
may be a huge ocean just farther west.