Possibilities of using the beneficial life stories indicators in working with people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia

Abstract

This article presents the results of original research conducted for the purposes of a thesis in the field of clinical psychology and psychiatry using perspective and narrative methodology. Mental health in the narrative perspective is defined as the ability to create a life story that meets certain formal criteria (Stemplewska-Żakowicz, Zalewski, 2010). The main research question of the study concerned the differences between life stories of people with diagnosed schizophrenia and the stories of healthy people - in relation to the so-called ‘healthy/adaptive’ autobiographical narratives (beneficial life stories indicators). The study group included 9 patients with the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, patients of the Psychiatric-Rehabilitation Ward of Clinical Hospital in Krakow.

Autobiographical narratives of the subjects were obtained in response to a narrative stimulus: “Please tell me the story of your life”, starting the interview about the life story (The Life Story Interview) by Dan P. McAdams (1985, 2006). The reconstruction of the strategy of creating a story about one’s own life by the subjects allowed to determine the degree to which the autobiographical narratives of people suffering from schizophrenia are compatible with the criteria that favour the health of the narrative. The results of the study also revealed the internal diversity of the patients’ life histories within the whole group.

The criteria referred to in the article and their conceptualisation in relation to life stories constructed by psychiatric patients may constitute a theoretical basis for differentiating auto- narrations characteristic for proper functioning of an individual. These indicators also potentially serve as guidelines for clinicians, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists working with psychotic patients. Moreover, identification of disturbances or deficits occurring at the level of autobiographical narrations enables insight into the phenomenology of the disease from the perspective of the person experiencing it. This in turn enriches psychological strategies of explaining psychological phenomena that take place in the examined individuals with a category
of their understanding.