USIKKERHEDSSTRATEGIER: Psykiateres håndtering af terapeutiske krisesituationer med skizofrene patienter

Resumé

During the 1990’s, the social sciences have

increasingly focused on the structure and

function of scientific expert systems, and the

nature of expert reflexivity in these particular

settings. This article takes a similar focus

and presents data from interviews made

during an ethnographic fieldwork among

psychiatric psychotherapists. The therapists

worked with schizophrenic patients in a

Danish mental hospital. The article shows

some of the major scientific norms structuring

the course of daily clinical practice,

and highlights how the therapists cope

with situations in which they experience

uncertainties in the interaction with schizophrenic

patients. It is suggested that the therapists

deal with these difficulties in terms

of specific coping strategies, which seem to

neutralise, integrate or symbolise the uncertainties

in question. It is then discussed how

order and stability are maintained normatively

as well as strategically, and how norms

and practices are related to one another in

this particular environment of experts.