Living with psychosis as a longer-term health condition: an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study

Abstract

This thesis details a phenomenological research study into the lived experience of living with psychosis as a longer?term health condition in Southern England between 2012 and 2013. Ten people living with psychosis and supported by NHS Community Adult Mental Health Services participated in in?depth interviews about their lived experience, which were analysed through the application of IPA. Five super?ordinate themes emerged: The Awfulness, Psychosis as a Volitional ‘Other’, What is Real?, The Distressing Tyranny of Voices, and Liberation. The degree of experiential convergence within themes was high and determined by the level of explicitly or implicitly expressed separation from the psychosis.
The study reveals an underestimated on?going awfulness, specifically compounded by voice hearing. A heightened sense of vulnerability and threat is experienced and a loss of confidence in being able to keep the ‘self’ safe from the psychosis, which is perceived as a malevolent ‘other’. This is accompanied by a loss of confidence about what is real and what is not. Subjective realities suggest strongly that recovery?supporting ‘liberating’ interventions need to go beyond anti?psychotic medication. Findings resonate with the extant phenomenological literature and reawaken the debate about reconceptualising longer?term psychosis as a trauma response to extraordinary and self? altering experiences.
The thesis highlights that phenomenological research findings into the lived experience of living with psychosis as a longer –term health condition show a congruency and appear robustly salient with the subjective realities of living with psychosis yet remain underrepresented in informing both people who are living with psychosis and mental health practice. The discussion focuses on the relevance of findings for clinical practice with people living with psychosis and on issues of using phenomenological methodologies such as IPA to explore the lived experience of psychosis.

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ORCID for Joanne Brown: orcid.org/0000-0002-3383-8809

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