ABSTRACT
The value of research participants' subjectivities as valid objects of study in social science research has a long history in qualitative inquiry. Sustained questioning of positivist assumptions of researcher neutrality, scientific objectivity, and the possibility of value-free research led to the flourishing of research approaches emphasizing the value of 'lived experience'. Madness is arguably one of the most disruptive experiences in Western society. A psychotic breakdown is most likely to occur during late adolescence, a time when essential social, vocational, educational, and sexual experiences are established. Literary attempts to depict the experiences of madness through memoir and life writing, and those using or working in mental health services, are extensive. The alliance of first-person accounts of madness found in literature, biography and case study with narrative social science methodologies such as autoethnography, appears fruitful. This chapter argues that the representations of mad narratives are vulnerable to a number of criticisms, including methodological solipsism and theoretical naivety.
