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Mutual aid groups have become a common form of help in the mental health field. Although self-help groups are associated with a range of health and social benefits, they remain poorly understood in terms of the dynamics of their interactions. Adopting an ethnographic-discursive approach, we conducted a 6-month observation of the meetings of a self-help group of parents with children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to analyze the discursive dynamics of the interactions that characterized the group. Using a set of discursive strategies and practices, the parents promoted a homogeneity of viewpoints and experiences within the group and constructed a shared and consensual narrative to endorse a specific understanding of ADHD. The production of both homogeneity within the group and a shared narrative served to absolve parents of guilt, helped parents to signify their experience within a blaming social context, and preserved their identities as “good parents.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is currently the most debated childhood psychiatric diagnosis. Given the circulation of competing perspectives about the ‘real’ causes of children’s behaviour and the ‘best’ way to treat them, we aim to analyse the interactions of the central social actors’ discourses about attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder children within the Italian context. Adopting a multi-method approach, we focus on the polyphonic chorus of voices surrounding the child, studying the discourses of mental health professionals, teachers and parents. These actors are representative of three contexts that are deeply engaged with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: medical institutions, schools and families. Our theoretical and methodological approach integrates positioning theory, the Bakhtinian notion of dialogical thinking and discourse analysis to study stakeholders’ reflexive and interactive positioning in terms of the attribution of rights, duties, responsibilities and power issues. The results show that mutual blame is a constitutive element of relational dynamics among the key adults surrounding attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder children. We argue that these conflicting relationships are not merely related to the debate regarding the validity of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. Rather, the mutual blame centres on questions of compliance, recognition of authority and morality. Through the blame game, adults negotiate their own and others’ subjectivity in ways that simultaneously (re)produce power relationships and resistance efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The analysis of discourses involves problems and choices related to the integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the formalisation of qualitative analysis, the software used and the identification of the units of analysis. These are issues that can be solved considering the typology of discourses analysed and the topic under examination. We present results of research that examined the integration of two different methods of analysing data using the two computer programmes Alceste and NUD*IST. The corpus examined is made up of articles published in two leading news magazines about 'the Di Bella affair', which exploded in Italy at the end of the 1990s. The affair concerned an anti-tumour therapy introduced as an alternative to chemotherapy by Doctor Di Bella, but rejected by the Ministry of Health. This issue flared up in the mass media and public opinion seemed mainly to side with the Di Bella treatment. Our general hypothesis is that this affair gave rise to a conflict between 'the reified universe' - scientific and governmental institutions - and 'the consensual universe' - laymen, patients and their relatives. An important role was played by the mass media that inflamed the conflict at the same time as representing it. We suggest that this case is understandable only if viewed within the context of the Italian political, cultural and ideological situation. The description of the results stresses the usefulness of integrating the two methods of analysis since what emerges from one method serves to corroborate and clarify that which emerges from the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]