Dancing with the DSM - The reflexive positioning of narrative informed psychiatric practice

Abstract

Davies and Harre's positioning theory and Foucauldian ideas of power and resistance are used to describe a range of positions that post-structuralist informed practitioners might take up in relation to narrative knowledges and practices, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) knowledges and practices. These positions are considered through the metaphor of dancing with DSM discourse. Different possible subject positions are defined by changes in dance style, dance lead and dance partner. Examples from narrative informed psychiatric practice are offered for each of these positions. An exploration of the intersectional space(s) between these professional knowledges as a means to create new dances is offered as both a means to reconcile DSM and make new discoveries on how to work with people who would traditionally become subject to DSM knowledge and practice. © 2013 Australian Association of Family Therapy.