The research project

The project documents
The project outcomes are presented in two forms: a longer, more detailed version, known
as the main publication* (available from: www.bps.org.uk/PTM-Main); and this shorter
document, known as the overview publication (available from: www.bps.org.uk/PTMOverview ). This overview publication is also available in printed format; please email
MemberNetworkServices@bps.org.uk to request a copy. Each version will now be described.
The main publication
The main publication is entitled: The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Towards the
identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling
behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis.
It supplements the overview publication by:
● setting out the problems of medicalisation and psychiatric diagnosis, why these problems
have arisen and why they cannot be resolved without fundamental shifts in thinking;
● showing the relationship between the aims of diagnosis in medicine and psychiatry,
and the aims of this alternative framework;
● offering a detailed account of the underlying philosophical principles, theories and
evidence supporting the Power Threat Meaning (PTM) Framework;
● reporting on the views of the consultancy group of service users and carers who gave
feedback on the PTM Framework as it developed;
● discussing the practical implications of adopting a non-diagnostic approach in the
areas of service commissioning, design and delivery, therapeutic practice, research,
legal practice, access to welfare and other benefits, and in relation to society as a whole
in terms of social policy, equality and social justice;
● supplying full references for all the above;
● supplying indicative references for the General Patterns and sub-patterns derived from
the PTM Framework.
Readers wanting an in-depth understanding of the context, principles, research and
practice from which the PTM Framework emerged, may wish to read the main publication
in its entirety. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be useful to refer to specific chapters in
order to supply more detail about particular aspects of the PTM Framework.
The content of the main publication is:
● Executive Summary
● Introduction
● Chapter 1: Problems of medicalisation and diagnosis
● Chapter 2: Conceptual and philosophical issues
● Chapter 3: Meaning and narrati