The Survivor Researcher as Trickster – experiential knowledge in research

‘The survivor researcher as ‘trickster’? Critical reflections on the role of experiential knowledge within academic research in mental health’

We are posting a video recording of the presentation given by Dina Poursanidou at  our Discussion and Support group meeting on 15 December.

Introducing the talk, Dina said: “In this paper I am borrowing the character of ‘the trickster’ from H. Spandler’s work in ‘The radical psychiatrist as trickster’ (2008) to experiment with and explore the characteristics and functions of ‘the trickster’ as they could potentially apply to the double identity and role of service user/survivor researchers within academic research contexts. The lived contradictions characterising service user/survivor researchers’ liminal professional identities, as well as the paradoxical, disruptive and unsettling nature and function of experiential knowledge within academic research in mental health, will be critically reflected upon having the character of ‘the trickster’ as a point of departure. Drawing upon my autobiography, the paper will discuss the unremitting identity and other (ethical, political and methodological) struggles implicated in the task of constructing and negotiating our double identities as researchers and mental health service users within University-based mental health research in England; a task involving immense complexities, challenges, paradoxes, contradictions, ambivalence and discomfort.”