Conceptualising Lived Experience in Mental Health Research
Problems, Insights and Implications
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2250499 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rajvinder Samra (0000-0002-5255-4238, Department of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care The Open University Milton Keynes UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | e70039-e70039 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.70039 |
| PMID | 40305649 |
| OpenAlex | W4409979075 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 70 |
Across health research, drawing on accounts from people with lived experience is often promoted as a shift away from epistemic injustice wherein the knowledge of the marginalised is ignored/silenced. Paradoxically for people with mental distress who are given a diagnostic label, aspects of their accounts may actually be foregrounded to categorise them with mental illness/disorder. In doing this, their sense of reality (e.g., ontological experiences) can be judged to be significantly different from other people in addition to their epistemic knowledge and understanding. This points to issues of ontological differences between lived experiencers of various forms of mental distress that need deeper consideration in mental health research and practice, alongside the ongoing work on epistemic considerations. Experiencing serious mental distress can include a loss of trust in one's sensory/perceptual signals which complicates how one makes sense of experience and knowledge. The complexities around these processes is at odds with the more straightforward ideas about testimonial accuracy and speaker credibility that underpin epistemic knowledge goals. This review outlines often-overlooked issues related to ontological differences between people in the context of mental health and offers suggestions for the future
Lived experience · Mental health · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Against Gullibility
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
The Power Of Ignorance
Witnessing, Recognition, and Response Ethics
Free Speech and Illocution
Two Kinds of Respect
Ontic Injustice
‘The Hermeneutic Problem of Psychiatry’ and the Co-Production of Meaning in Psychiatric Healthcare
Epistemic injustice in psychiatric research and practice
The harms of the internalized oppression worry
Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory
Psychiatrization
Ontology and Oppression
Psychology as a Social Science
Phenomenology, Lived Experience
Recovering our Stories”
The borderline as diagnostician
Beyond the divide between cognition and discourse
Anti-Oedipus
Lived Experience
The Politics of 'people with lived experience' Experiential Authority and the Risks of Strategic Essentialism
Epistemic struggles
Chronic illness as biographical disruption
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |