Troubling 'lived experience': a post-structural critique of mental health nursing qualitative research assumptions

Qualitative studies in mental health nursing research deploying the 'lived experience' construct are often written on the basis of conventional qualitative inquiry assumptions. These include the presentation of the 'authentic voice' of research participants, related to their 'lived experience' and underpinned by a meta-assumption of the 'metaphysics of presence'. This set of assumptions is critiqued on the basis of contemporary post-structural qualitative scholarship. Implications for mental health nursing qualitative research emerging from this critique are described in relation to illustrative published work, and some benefits and challenges for researchers embracing post-structural sensibilities are outlined.