Going Beyond a Conflict of Approaches in Psychiatric Care: The Perks of Interdisciplinary Research

Abstract: Our research studied the interactions between mental health care (MHC) professionals and users in French public psychiatry, focusing on the “tools” which professionals use in their interactions with users. We draw a typology of four main “therapeutic styles” in relation to tool use: 1- Absence of identifiable tools. Interaction is personalized and improvised. 2- Use of rituals and habits. 3- Use of methods that have otherwise been written and formalized. 4- Use of tools, be they written or computerized, protocols guiding the interactions, or strictly standardized tools. The psychologist involved in the research (HH) intends to show how the practice of interdisciplinary fieldwork, which implied the “trouble of having a psychologist sharing fieldwork”, enabled both researchers to transform a classical methodology into a series of questions concerning the focus of data gathering and data analysis, the position and stance of both researchers, and the possibility to provide not only valid descriptions of day-to-day care practices but also correct interpretations of the unconscious feelings at stake in MHC.