‘Gypsum on water. That schizophrenia.’ schizophrenia – a meeting of stories: a qualitative study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to enrich our understanding of how personal and master narratives ‘met’ in stories of individuals who experienced schizophrenia. Qualitative, in-depth and semi-structured interviews conducted in Poland with people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia were processed using the thematic analysis method. Interview analysis yielded three ways in which the master and the personal narratives of schizophrenia met: reception of master narrative content, its negotiation within personal narratives, and application, i.e. using phrases from the master narrative to fill in or supplement descriptions of own experience. We emphasize the importance of self-awareness in using master narrative in encounters with individuals diagnosed with mental illness and its associated consequences. We point out the need to support the construction of personal narratives and, as postulated by phenomenological psychiatry, we stress the need to recognize subjective stories of the experience of schizophrenia as a special mode of human existence. Points of Interest This article looks in detail into stories created by people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia about their experiences and into the way they construct their narratives. Participants of this study recall in their stories statements of medical specialists and people from social environment talking about schizophrenia. Terms and phrases about schizophrenia cause versatile reactions among people with this diagnosis. Sometimes participants accept them, often they disagree with them, other times, however, they ascribe new meanings to them. It is important to be attentive in our use of language when speaking about schizophrenia and when talking to people with this diagnosis. The accounts of the participants in our study are another voice in the debate on the idea of abandoning the label of ‘schizophrenia’.