Jan Sitvast

This article is about the therapeutic use of photography in mental health care. We will first describe the intelligent nature of perception as we understand on the basis of neurobiological research findings. We will link our interpretation of visual perception with the phenomenology of perception from the theory of Merleau‐Ponty.. Then we will discuss how patients in mental health care with mental health problems may profit by an experiential approach that is concomitant with the existential reality described by Merleau‐Ponty. The experiential approach we go into more detail is Focusing. We will demonstrate the limitations and feasibility of Focusing in the procedures of working with photography as a therapeutic medium.

The aim of this study is to describe how hermeneutic photography and one application of hermeneutic photography in particular, namely the photo-instrument, can be used as a health care intervention that fosters meaning (re-)construction of mental illness experiences. Studies into the ways how patients construct meaning in illness narratives indicate that aesthetic expressions of experiences may play an important role in meaning making and sharing. The study is part of a larger research project devoted to understanding the photostories that result from groups of psychiatric patients using the photo-instrument. Within a focused ethnography approach we employed a qualitative design of a single case study. Text analysis of photostories was combined with observational data. Data were analyzed using hermeneutic theory. Participant observations were used for triangulation and complementarity. The interaction and collaboration between health care professionals and patients in the context of a photo group emerged as core concept that underlies the photo-instrument. The interaction triggered a reframing of meaning in the patient’s illness narrative that offered new perspectives on positive identity growth. The role of visualizing meaning in images was found to lend a dynamic power to the process and triggered a dialectic between real life circumstances and imagination played out in the context of situated action. The findings suggest that a positive reframing of meaning in illness narratives is facilitated by the photo-instrument

The purpose of this article is to illustrate moral learning in persons with a psychiatric disability who participated in a nursing intervention, called the photo-instrument. This intervention is a form of hermeneutic photography. The findings are based on a multiple case study of 42 patients and additional interviews with eight of them. Photo groups were organized within three settings of psychiatric services: ambulatory as well as clinical, all situated in the Netherlands. Data were analysed according to hermeneutic and semiotic principles. Two cases are presented. Findings show that voice and face are concepts that help to identify elements of moral learning in the rehabilitation process of persons with a psychiatric disability. During the process patients become more aware of their responsibilities towards themselves and others

This article is about an intervention or approach in mental health care that has been developed from hermeneutics, more specifically the hermeneutics of Ricoeur. In this intervention photography is used as a means to assist patients in a process of meaning making from experiences in their life world. It aims at empowerment and strengthening the agency of patients. It does so by facilitating storytelling. Mimesis, as interpreted by Ricoeur, was found to be a central concept with which we could explain the therapeutic working of the approach and legitimize its ethical claims of empowerment and recovery. Another aspect is the concordance between narrative and action, as described by Ricoeur, which has a pendant in the goal orientation of the photography intervention. At the same time demonstrations and experiences from professional practice (nurses applying the intervention) will give us feedback on the theory and enrich it with new insights, e.g. on ‘iconic representation’.