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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 26:1 (2016) ► pp.22–38

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Homeward bound

Enacted narratives of the return to home after a short-term stay at a psychiatric centre

 | Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Published online: 20 December 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.26.1.02ulf
With a focus on enacted narratives, this ethnographic study addresses how people with mental illness communicate returning home after a treatment stay at a psychiatric centre. Data were analysed based on Ricoeur’s theory of narrative and action. Our analysis consisted of three analytic layers: the significant issue of discharge, identifying three stories of how being on the way home is enacted, and a further interpretation and discussion. The narrative analysis shows how significant issues of returning home are enacted among persons in everyday activities at one centre, and how an inherent ambiguity raised some challenges within the field of mental health. This study shows how conducting everyday activities enable people use the available narrative resources to negotiate the self; hence they reflect and create thoughts about the return home that are shared among persons at the centre.
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Reed, Nina Petersen, Staffan Josephsson & Sissel Alsaker
2020. A narrative study of mental health recovery: exploring unique, open-ended and collective processes. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 15:1 ► pp. 1747252 ff. DOI logo
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