Psychiatrie et écriture : les professionnels de la psychiatrie écrivent

Abstract

Since 2022, a multidisciplinary research project (psychiatry, psychology, history, philosophy) focusing on professional writing in psychiatry has been underway. The endeavor brings together clinicians and researchers from several institutions (GHU Psychiatrie Neurosciences, Université Paris Cité, Institut de Psychodynamique du Travail, Groupe de l’Evolution Psychiatrique). The first stage consisted in bringing together clinicians and researchers who had expressed an interest in the project with the goal of defining the theoretical and methodological framework of the research within the context of a seminar held at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne. The seminar was based on a study of the changes in the written word associated with the computerization of psychiatric records, which generate new uses and question the specific contributions of “paper” and “computer” or digital writing. What is the role of writing today in an era when the media of expression are being transformed by the overwhelming use of computers and digital technology? What role did it play prior to this sea change? How should we view this evolution and its implications for clinical and therapeutic practice? Writing about psychiatry, writing as a psychiatric professional, represents a certain way of considering psychic functioning, clinical psychiatry and psychopathology, and organizes the constituent elements of what would be a “doctrine of care”. From the point of view of the practical consequences of the proposed research, the challenge would be to open up the possibility, for professionals, of perfecting and renewing, through critical reflection, the daily writing tools they use in their work with patients. One aim of the research could be to propose mixed methods (paper/new technologies) based on an epistemological analysis of these issues.