David J Harper
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1258841 |
|---|---|
| NOME | David J Harper |
| PRENOMES | David J |
| SOBRENOME | Harper |
| ASSINATURA | HARPER D J |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of East London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7843-2119 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 26 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 81 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 26 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1990 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2021 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Realising the potential of general population research to reconceptualise the study of “delusions”
Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justification for the use of normalising practices within cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. These studies have found that, contrary to mainstream psychiatric assumptions, beliefs considered delusional are neither rare in the general population nor qualitatively different from “nondelusional” beliefs, whilst theories from a “normal” rather than “abnormal…
From the margins to the Nice guidelines
Although histories of cognitive behaviour therapy have begun to appear, their use with people with psychosis diagnoses has received relatively little attention. In this article, we elucidate the conditions of possibility for the emergence of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (CBTp) in England between 1982 and 2002. We present an analysis of policy documents, research publications and books, participant observation, and interviews with a g…
A “trigger”, a cause or obscured? How trauma and adversity are constructed in psychiatric stress-vulnerability accounts of “psychosis”
How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and experiences which attract a diagnosis of psychosis and what implications does this have for women with these diagnoses? Drawing on a broadly critical realist framework, we present data from two studies relevant to these questions. First, we analyse the discursive practices engaged in during a staff-only discussion of a female in-patient with a psychosis…
A Qualitative Stakeholder Analysis of Avian Influenza Policy in Bangladesh
Avian influenza is a major animal and public health concern in Bangladesh. A decade after development and implementation of the first national avian influenza and human pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan in Bangladesh, a two-stage qualitative stakeholder analysis was performed in relation to the policy development process and the actual policy. This study specifically aimed to identify the future policy options to prevent and contr…
On the persistence of psychiatric diagnosis
The affective atmospheres of surveillance
The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are ethereal yet material, geographical yet trans-geographical. Contemporary surveillance systems form numerous connections that involve multiple times, spaces, and bodies. Owing to their ubiquity, normalization, and yet clandestine characteristics, they seem to produce an almost unnoticed aspect of everyday life. The impacts, then, of contemporary surve…
The Dynamics of Impersonal Trust and Distrust in Surveillance Systems
Empirical research concerned with the trust that individuals may or may not have in surveillance systems has largely been gauged through opinion poll and survey type research. Although these may be useful in augmenting broad patterns of trust based attitudes, this article argues that they tend to harbour theoretically weak conceptualisations of trust which may produce misleading results. We draw on relevant concepts related to notions of 'imperso…
Uncovering Recovery
Discourses of recovery and resilience have risen to positions of dominance in the mental health field. Models of recovery and resilience enjoy purchase, in both policy and practice, across a range of settings from self-described psychiatric survivors through to mental health charities through to statutory mental health service providers. Despite this ubiquity, there is confusion about what recovery means. In this article we problematize notions o…
Researching “experience”
In this paper, we explore some of the tensions involved in the process of engaging with embodiment research. Although a significant volume of discursive work on “the body” and its role in social relations now exists, there is little in the way of empirical research that moves the focus away from discourse alone to concentrate on other modalities, such as embodied feelings, sensations, and engagements with the world. We begin by briefly reviewing …
Surveying Qualitative Research Teaching on British Clinical Psychology Training Programmes 1992–2006
There have been indications that qualitative research has become more popular in British clinical psychology, particularly amongst trainee clinical psychologists. In a 1992 survey conducted by the author, 81% of UK clinical psychology training programmes that responded reported that they taught qualitative methods for an average 4.85 hours and that only a small number of students submitted qualitative dissertations. This article reports the resul…
Social inequality and the diagnosis of paranoia
One of the obstacles to understanding the links between social inequality and mental health distress is the reliance on heterogeneous diagnostic categories. In this paper, it is argued that a solution to this problem is to explore more homogenous experiences of distress. This paper investigates one particular form of distress: paranoia. The relationship between social inequality and paranoia is then examined, focusing on two aspects. Firstly, it …
Paranoia
Both psychology and psychiatry are dominated by individualistic accounts of paranoia (and, indeed, other forms of distress). As a corrective to these, this paper provides a social account of paranoia grounded in a minimal notion of embodied subjectivity constituted from the interpenetration of feelings, perception and discourse. Paranoia is conceptualized as a mode or tendency within embodied subjectivity, co-constituted in the dialectical associ…
Learning to Use Discourse Analysis on a Professional Psychology Training Programme
Qualitative research methods have become more prominent in professional psychology training over recent years, yet there are relatively few published accounts of how students learn to use these methods. In this article we describe the experiences of three British trainee clinical psychologists as they learn to use one qualitative method, Discourse Analysis, for their major research project. Based on these experiences, we discuss key aspects of th…
On Psychology and Embodiment
Mental health teaching to UK psychology undergraduates
One of the limitations on developing more progressive applied psychology training is the teaching received by students at undergraduate level. In this study, we focus on the provision of teaching about mental health or its equivalents (e.g. abnormal psychology and clinical psychology) on UK undergraduate psychology programmes. Most students who go on to train as clinical psychologists will have received teaching on modules like these. A survey qu…
Professional accounts of electroconvulsive therapy
Analysing Interaction
The Politics of Paranoia
The notion of paranoia is often implicitly reproduced in the work of surveillance researchers. However, in this article I will argue that this notion needs to be interrogated since current conceptions of paranoia are inherently dualistic: viewing paranoia solely at an individual or intra-psychic level; or, alternatively solely at a societal level. Inevitably, either perspective is limited. Here I will attempt to break down this dichotomy by, firs…
Deconstructing `Paranoia
`Paranoia' is a construct which is currently associated with types of `schizophrenia', `personality disorder' and `delusional disorder' in DSM-IVTM (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). In this paper, the concept of paranoia is deconstructed by examining six dominant and six opposed and subjugated presuppositions within both the psychiatric and abnormal psychology literature. In an argument which aims to provide a positive deconstruction, a d…
Accounting for Poverty
In this article it is argued that the attributional literature concerning explanations of poverty is inadequate due to its theoretical presuppositions. It is proposed that a discursive approach is better able to withstand criticism and contribute to a more adequate understanding of poverty accounts. Some examples are given of how a discursive approach might work in practice
Histories of suspicion in a time of conspiracy
In this paper, I will develop a reading of an account of the history of the category of mental disorder known as 'paranoia', written by an eminent British psychiatrist, Aubrey Lewis. The analysis will draw on both the ideological context in which the account is embedded and the interests dominant and subjugated within the text. I will argue that Lewis' paper depicts the history of paranoia as continuous, scientific, coherent and empirically optim…
The professional construction of ‘paranoia’ and the discursive use of diagnostic criteria
This study examined the ways in which five mental health professionals talked about paranoia. A discourse analysis (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) suggested that interviewees positioned themselves, and were themselves positioned, by a number of discourses, or systematic ways of talking, in relation to this topic. These discourses appeared to serve a number of functions including the maintenance of professional legitimacy. Interviewees used a number of…
Celebrating a diversity of voices in the arena of discourse
Defining delusion and the serving of professional interests
This paper examines the related concepts of paranoia and delusion from a broadly social constructionist perspective. Through an analysis of the American Psychiatric Association's (1987) definition of delusion, inherent inconsistencies and implied philosophical assumptions are highlighted. It is argued that psychiatric definitions are not merely academic and clinical but are a site of political and professional interest. The implications of such a…
The Role of Psychology in the An alysis of Poverty
The aim of this article is to draw together research findings in social and organisational psychology literature to illustrate that psychology has a role in helping eliminate poverty. Following an analysis of poverty similar to that of Mehryar (1984) which asserts that the cause and solution of poverty both are politico-economic, it is argued that certain psychological findings (relating to perceptions of poverty and the nature of institutional d…
The affective atmospheres of surveillance
The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are ethereal yet material, geographical yet trans-geographical. Contemporary surveillance systems form numerous connections that involve multiple times, spaces, and bodies. Owing to their ubiquity, normalization, and yet clandestine characteristics, they seem to produce an almost unnoticed aspect of everyday life. The impacts, then, of contemporary surve…
Uncovering Recovery
Discourses of recovery and resilience have risen to positions of dominance in the mental health field. Models of recovery and resilience enjoy purchase, in both policy and practice, across a range of settings from self-described psychiatric survivors through to mental health charities through to statutory mental health service providers. Despite this ubiquity, there is confusion about what recovery means. In this article we problematize notions o…
Professional accounts of electroconvulsive therapy
Surveying Qualitative Research Teaching on British Clinical Psychology Training Programmes 1992–2006
There have been indications that qualitative research has become more popular in British clinical psychology, particularly amongst trainee clinical psychologists. In a 1992 survey conducted by the author, 81% of UK clinical psychology training programmes that responded reported that they taught qualitative methods for an average 4.85 hours and that only a small number of students submitted qualitative dissertations. This article reports the resul…
The professional construction of ‘paranoia’ and the discursive use of diagnostic criteria
This study examined the ways in which five mental health professionals talked about paranoia. A discourse analysis (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) suggested that interviewees positioned themselves, and were themselves positioned, by a number of discourses, or systematic ways of talking, in relation to this topic. These discourses appeared to serve a number of functions including the maintenance of professional legitimacy. Interviewees used a number of…
The Dynamics of Impersonal Trust and Distrust in Surveillance Systems
Empirical research concerned with the trust that individuals may or may not have in surveillance systems has largely been gauged through opinion poll and survey type research. Although these may be useful in augmenting broad patterns of trust based attitudes, this article argues that they tend to harbour theoretically weak conceptualisations of trust which may produce misleading results. We draw on relevant concepts related to notions of 'imperso…
Learning to Use Discourse Analysis on a Professional Psychology Training Programme
Qualitative research methods have become more prominent in professional psychology training over recent years, yet there are relatively few published accounts of how students learn to use these methods. In this article we describe the experiences of three British trainee clinical psychologists as they learn to use one qualitative method, Discourse Analysis, for their major research project. Based on these experiences, we discuss key aspects of th…
Histories of suspicion in a time of conspiracy
In this paper, I will develop a reading of an account of the history of the category of mental disorder known as 'paranoia', written by an eminent British psychiatrist, Aubrey Lewis. The analysis will draw on both the ideological context in which the account is embedded and the interests dominant and subjugated within the text. I will argue that Lewis' paper depicts the history of paranoia as continuous, scientific, coherent and empirically optim…
On the persistence of psychiatric diagnosis
A “trigger”, a cause or obscured? How trauma and adversity are constructed in psychiatric stress-vulnerability accounts of “psychosis”
How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and experiences which attract a diagnosis of psychosis and what implications does this have for women with these diagnoses? Drawing on a broadly critical realist framework, we present data from two studies relevant to these questions. First, we analyse the discursive practices engaged in during a staff-only discussion of a female in-patient with a psychosis…
On Psychology and Embodiment
The Politics of Paranoia
The notion of paranoia is often implicitly reproduced in the work of surveillance researchers. However, in this article I will argue that this notion needs to be interrogated since current conceptions of paranoia are inherently dualistic: viewing paranoia solely at an individual or intra-psychic level; or, alternatively solely at a societal level. Inevitably, either perspective is limited. Here I will attempt to break down this dichotomy by, firs…
Lay Causal Perceptions of Third World Poverty and the Just World Theory
This study investigated the factor analytic properties of Rubin and Peplau's (1975) Just World Scale and a questionnaire of possible causes of Third World poverty. Three Just World factors emerged in contrast to Hyland and Dann's (1987) four factor solution. They were interpreted as ‘Pro Just World’, Anti Just World' and 'Cynical or Reserved Just World Belief. Four poverty factors emerged, interpreted as ‘Blame the Poor; ‘Blame Third World Govern…
The Role of Psychology in the An alysis of Poverty
The aim of this article is to draw together research findings in social and organisational psychology literature to illustrate that psychology has a role in helping eliminate poverty. Following an analysis of poverty similar to that of Mehryar (1984) which asserts that the cause and solution of poverty both are politico-economic, it is argued that certain psychological findings (relating to perceptions of poverty and the nature of institutional d…
Defining delusion and the serving of professional interests
This paper examines the related concepts of paranoia and delusion from a broadly social constructionist perspective. Through an analysis of the American Psychiatric Association's (1987) definition of delusion, inherent inconsistencies and implied philosophical assumptions are highlighted. It is argued that psychiatric definitions are not merely academic and clinical but are a site of political and professional interest. The implications of such a…
Histories of suspicion in a time of conspiracy
In this paper, I will develop a reading of an account of the history of the category of mental disorder known as 'paranoia', written by an eminent British psychiatrist, Aubrey Lewis. The analysis will draw on both the ideological context in which the account is embedded and the interests dominant and subjugated within the text. I will argue that Lewis' paper depicts the history of paranoia as continuous, scientific, coherent and empirically optim…
The professional construction of ‘paranoia’ and the discursive use of diagnostic criteria
This study examined the ways in which five mental health professionals talked about paranoia. A discourse analysis (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) suggested that interviewees positioned themselves, and were themselves positioned, by a number of discourses, or systematic ways of talking, in relation to this topic. These discourses appeared to serve a number of functions including the maintenance of professional legitimacy. Interviewees used a number of…
Celebrating a diversity of voices in the arena of discourse
Deconstructing `Paranoia
`Paranoia' is a construct which is currently associated with types of `schizophrenia', `personality disorder' and `delusional disorder' in DSM-IVTM (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). In this paper, the concept of paranoia is deconstructed by examining six dominant and six opposed and subjugated presuppositions within both the psychiatric and abnormal psychology literature. In an argument which aims to provide a positive deconstruction, a d…
Accounting for Poverty
In this article it is argued that the attributional literature concerning explanations of poverty is inadequate due to its theoretical presuppositions. It is proposed that a discursive approach is better able to withstand criticism and contribute to a more adequate understanding of poverty accounts. Some examples are given of how a discursive approach might work in practice
Analysing Interaction
The Politics of Paranoia
The notion of paranoia is often implicitly reproduced in the work of surveillance researchers. However, in this article I will argue that this notion needs to be interrogated since current conceptions of paranoia are inherently dualistic: viewing paranoia solely at an individual or intra-psychic level; or, alternatively solely at a societal level. Inevitably, either perspective is limited. Here I will attempt to break down this dichotomy by, firs…
Mental health teaching to UK psychology undergraduates
One of the limitations on developing more progressive applied psychology training is the teaching received by students at undergraduate level. In this study, we focus on the provision of teaching about mental health or its equivalents (e.g. abnormal psychology and clinical psychology) on UK undergraduate psychology programmes. Most students who go on to train as clinical psychologists will have received teaching on modules like these. A survey qu…
Professional accounts of electroconvulsive therapy
Learning to Use Discourse Analysis on a Professional Psychology Training Programme
Qualitative research methods have become more prominent in professional psychology training over recent years, yet there are relatively few published accounts of how students learn to use these methods. In this article we describe the experiences of three British trainee clinical psychologists as they learn to use one qualitative method, Discourse Analysis, for their major research project. Based on these experiences, we discuss key aspects of th…
On Psychology and Embodiment
Paranoia
Both psychology and psychiatry are dominated by individualistic accounts of paranoia (and, indeed, other forms of distress). As a corrective to these, this paper provides a social account of paranoia grounded in a minimal notion of embodied subjectivity constituted from the interpenetration of feelings, perception and discourse. Paranoia is conceptualized as a mode or tendency within embodied subjectivity, co-constituted in the dialectical associ…
Researching “experience”
In this paper, we explore some of the tensions involved in the process of engaging with embodiment research. Although a significant volume of discursive work on “the body” and its role in social relations now exists, there is little in the way of empirical research that moves the focus away from discourse alone to concentrate on other modalities, such as embodied feelings, sensations, and engagements with the world. We begin by briefly reviewing …
Surveying Qualitative Research Teaching on British Clinical Psychology Training Programmes 1992–2006
There have been indications that qualitative research has become more popular in British clinical psychology, particularly amongst trainee clinical psychologists. In a 1992 survey conducted by the author, 81% of UK clinical psychology training programmes that responded reported that they taught qualitative methods for an average 4.85 hours and that only a small number of students submitted qualitative dissertations. This article reports the resul…
Social inequality and the diagnosis of paranoia
One of the obstacles to understanding the links between social inequality and mental health distress is the reliance on heterogeneous diagnostic categories. In this paper, it is argued that a solution to this problem is to explore more homogenous experiences of distress. This paper investigates one particular form of distress: paranoia. The relationship between social inequality and paranoia is then examined, focusing on two aspects. Firstly, it …
Uncovering Recovery
Discourses of recovery and resilience have risen to positions of dominance in the mental health field. Models of recovery and resilience enjoy purchase, in both policy and practice, across a range of settings from self-described psychiatric survivors through to mental health charities through to statutory mental health service providers. Despite this ubiquity, there is confusion about what recovery means. In this article we problematize notions o…
On the persistence of psychiatric diagnosis
The affective atmospheres of surveillance
The spaces that surveillance produces can be thought of as ambiguous, entailing elements that are ethereal yet material, geographical yet trans-geographical. Contemporary surveillance systems form numerous connections that involve multiple times, spaces, and bodies. Owing to their ubiquity, normalization, and yet clandestine characteristics, they seem to produce an almost unnoticed aspect of everyday life. The impacts, then, of contemporary surve…
The Dynamics of Impersonal Trust and Distrust in Surveillance Systems
Empirical research concerned with the trust that individuals may or may not have in surveillance systems has largely been gauged through opinion poll and survey type research. Although these may be useful in augmenting broad patterns of trust based attitudes, this article argues that they tend to harbour theoretically weak conceptualisations of trust which may produce misleading results. We draw on relevant concepts related to notions of 'imperso…
A Qualitative Stakeholder Analysis of Avian Influenza Policy in Bangladesh
Avian influenza is a major animal and public health concern in Bangladesh. A decade after development and implementation of the first national avian influenza and human pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan in Bangladesh, a two-stage qualitative stakeholder analysis was performed in relation to the policy development process and the actual policy. This study specifically aimed to identify the future policy options to prevent and contr…
A “trigger”, a cause or obscured? How trauma and adversity are constructed in psychiatric stress-vulnerability accounts of “psychosis”
How do mental health professionals link adverse life experiences with the kinds of beliefs and experiences which attract a diagnosis of psychosis and what implications does this have for women with these diagnoses? Drawing on a broadly critical realist framework, we present data from two studies relevant to these questions. First, we analyse the discursive practices engaged in during a staff-only discussion of a female in-patient with a psychosis…
Realising the potential of general population research to reconceptualise the study of “delusions”
Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justification for the use of normalising practices within cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. These studies have found that, contrary to mainstream psychiatric assumptions, beliefs considered delusional are neither rare in the general population nor qualitatively different from “nondelusional” beliefs, whilst theories from a “normal” rather than “abnormal…
Psychology (23 obras) · Sociology (18 obras) · Political science (13 obras) · Epistemology (11 obras) · Social Psychology (11 obras) · Mental Health and Psychiatry (10 obras) · Psychiatry (10 obras) · Law (8 obras) · Medicine (8 obras) · Paranoia (7 obras)