Publications
Publication details [#61076]
Alsaker, Sissel, Staffan Josephsson and Lena A. Ulfseth. 2016. Homeward bound. Enacted narratives of the return to home after a short-term stay at a psychiatric centre. Narrative Inquiry 26 (1) : 22–38.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/ni
Annotation
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. This 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 to 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.