title: The professional construction of 'paranoia' and the discursive use of diagnostic criteria.
abstract: This study examined the ways in which five mental health professionals talked about paranoia. A discourse analysis (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) suggested that interviewees positioned themselves, and were themselves positioned, by a number of discourses, or systematic ways of talking, in relation to this topic. These discourses appeared to serve a number of functions including the maintenance of professional legitimacy. Interviewees used a number of rhetorical strategies (including exploiting the range and ambiguity of diagnostic definitions, criteria and theories) in order to meet challenges, for example that paranoid beliefs might be true.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Service, Whiston Hospital, Prescot, Merseyside, UK.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Harper
mesh_terms: D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D009626:Terminology as Topic