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The place of the unconscious in mental health nursing
Author(s) -
Crowe Marie
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2004.00302.x
Subject(s) - unconscious mind , meaning (existential) , mental health , psychology , mental health nursing , association (psychology) , dominance (genetics) , nursing , psychiatry , medicine , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
This paper acknowledges the concept of the unconscious in psychiatric discourse and explores the importance of this for mental health nursing practice. Mental health nursing practice has always been strongly influenced by psychiatric discourse because of its dominance in the clinical setting. The most recent edition of the American Psychiatry Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual has signalled that the concept of the unconscious is re‐emerging in psychiatric discourse. This re‐emergence provides the opportunity for mental health nurses to re‐affirm or develop their psychotherapeutic skills in the nurse−patient relationship. The psychotherapeutic relationship could focus on ways for the patient to find meaning in their lives that recognize and value difference and multiple ways of being.