University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
Title
An Auto-Ethnographic Study of "Open Dialogue": The Illumination of Snow
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Psychiatry; Systems and Psychosocial Advances Research Center
Publication Date
12-1-2015
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Psychiatry | Psychiatry and Psychology | Psychology
Abstract
This auto-ethnographic study describes the changes in the author's thinking and clinical work connected to her first-hand experience of Open Dialogue, which is an innovative, psychosocial approach to severe psychiatric crises developed in Tornio, Finland. In charting this trajectory, there is an emphasis on three interrelated themes: the micropolitics of U.S. managed mental health care; the practice of "dialogicality" in Open Dialogue; and the historical, cultural, and scientific shifts that are encouraging the adaptation of Open Dialogue in the United States. The work of Gregory Bateson provides a conceptual framework that makes sense of the author's experience and the larger trends. The study portrays and underscores how family and network practices are essential to responding to psychiatric crises and should not be abandoned in favor of a reductionist, biomedical model.
Keywords
Auto-ethnography, Biological Reductionism, Dialog, Dialogic Practice, Open Dialogue, autoetnografía, diálogo, diálogo abierto, práctica dialógica, reduccionismo biológico
DOI of Published Version
10.1111/famp.12160
Source
Fam Process. 2015 Dec;54(4):716-29. doi: 10.1111/famp.12160. Epub 2015 Jul 2. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Family process
PubMed ID
26133053
Repository Citation
Olson, Mary, "An Auto-Ethnographic Study of "Open Dialogue": The Illumination of Snow" (2015). University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. 960.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/960