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Incomprehensibility in the Narratives of Individuals With a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

2009; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 19; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1049732309351110

1552-7557

Javier Saavedra, Mercedes Cubero, Paul Crawford,

Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices

The fact that individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have difficulties in terms of ordering and communicating their life stories is well known, and undoubtedly these dysfunctions are linked to the experience of alienation and isolation. In this article we contribute to the debate by studying life narratives of ten patients with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia living in care homes in Andalusia, Spain. Patients were selected through meetings held with the directors of the care homes and data obtained from narrative, semistructured interviews. Thematic self-positioning and structure analysis identified four types of clearly distinctive narratives: delusive episodes with invasive voices, delusive episodes with no invasive voices, absence of delusive episodes or invasive voices and domination of self-position as patient, and complexity and articulation of self-positions.