Time to Listen.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Time to Listen - metaphors, metonymies and symbols - a phenomenological study in the religious content of psychosis.
IRAS ID
144798
Contact name
Richard Saville-Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Research summary
'Time to Listen' is a series of interviews designed to explore the actual language used by a number of participants in the expression of delusions, which are considered by their Clinician to contain religious or quasi-religious content. There is increasing research interest in religious practices in psychiatry as the new, fifth, edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) and the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) cite religious practices as possible explanations of behaviour which might otherwise be considered to result from a mental disorder.
Bahsvar and Bhugra (2008) called for a reassessment of the importance of religious delusions. The proposed study is being conducted to gather evidence to contribute towards such a reassessment. The evidence generated will be used to inform a wider theoretical study into the interrelation of ‘religion and psychosis’ (Dein & Littlewood: 2011), or the interrelation between ‘psychopathology and spirituality’ (Jackson and Fulford: 1997). These interviews will contribute to an exploration of the validity of the categorical separation of acute cognitive experience into pathological and non-pathological conditions.
The study specifies a series of single unstructured interviews in an Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) with twelve participants, who meet the inclusion criteria and articulate their delusions in ways which are coherent, irrespective of whether they are understandable or not. The data will be fully anonymised and participation is wholly voluntary.
The qualitative approach to the research allows for the recognition of a wide diversity of responses unhindered by the presuppositions of the researcher. The phenomenological method is deployed to ensure that the actual voices of participants articulating their delusions are recorded. The data will be analysed through a process of close reading.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
14/SS/1002
Date of REC Opinion
9 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion