Experiencing psychiatric diagnosis: client perspectives on being named mentally ill

In this article is reported result of a phenomenological study whereby privileged view was gained into the lives of persons who had experienced receiving a diagnosis which named 'severe and enduring mental illness'. Thematic analysis yielded the four essential themes of diagnosis as the experience of 'a knowledge that knows', 'destructive (gift) of difference', 'making visible the invisible' and 'making knowledge knowledgeable'. Each of the themes is discussed under its own heading in this paper as a means for describing the nature of 'experiencing psychiatric diagnosis'. Effort is made to provide glimpse into the 'lifeworld' of being diagnosed mentally ill, and the reader's attention is directed to a particular kind of power that exists in the medical language of diagnoses. Discernment is highlighted as most consequential to an 'action sensitive practice' and a case is made for care-providers in psychiatric-mental health care to be sensitized to how medical terminology is experienced and the need to strive for balance within the 'economy of power' contained in these specialized words.