Politico-Critical Analysis: A New Research Framework Applied to Psychiatry

Background: This article presents a new framework called politico-critical analysis based on the contentions of Foucauldian discourse analysis. The framework was developed to address a number of shortcomings and assess further aspects of importance to fields such as mental health and psychiatry. Aim: To present the main principles and steps of the politico-critical analysis framework and, subsequently, to demonstrate its application to a study on the therapeutic alliance in psychiatry. Method: The rationale and main principles of politico-critical analysis are described and applied to a study, the aim of which was to explore the knowledge and power interface in the therapeutic alliance in a psychiatric hospital in Malta. Data were collected during two phases; in the first phase, 10 care receivers, who were selected through purposeful random sampling in a psychiatric hospital in Malta, were interviewed to explore their perception of the knowledge–power balance in the psychiatric therapeutic alliance. The second phase consisted of collecting data from and analyzing a 60-page sample of medical records pertaining to the study participants interviewed in Phase 1. Results: Four themes emerged from the politico-critical analysis of care receivers’ interviews, depicting the knowledge–power interface within therapeutic alliances. From the analysis of medical records, three themes emerged, which shed light on the knowledge–power matrix within the alliances under study. Conclusions: The politico-critical analytical framework was regarded as a helpful agent in facilitating the exploration of the knowledge–power matrix within the psychiatric therapeutic alliance. Strengths and limitations were acknowledged, and the framework might help guide similar potential research.