La experiencia de «investigar con»: hacia una investigación colaborativa y emancipadora en el campo del sufrimiento mental

This article aims to address the methodological challenges and opportunities involved in anthropological co-research with people with experiences of mental suffering. To do so, it analyses the process followed in a participatory and collaborative ethnographic research on pharmacological treatment carried out in Catalonia and points out the methodological adjustments implemented in the design and execution of the project, including the creation of a specific resource, the InvestigarCON Laboratory, made up of people with experiences of mental suffering, family members, professionals, and researchers. Among the methodological challenges analysed were the difficulty of establishing a transformative dialogue with people who had unusual psychological experiences, with professionals who felt threatened in their position of knowledge and with the paternalistic inertia of caregivers. The challenge was to build relationships of trust and care with all the actors, as well as the need to methodologically address situations of epistemic injustice within the research. These reflections have allowed us to advance in the definition of a type of research practice that carries an implicit emancipatory horizon for the affected people themselves, as well as for professionals and carers, and for the achievement of which some proposals are put forward as conclusions: the generation of research methodologies that are inclusive and democratic, designing research from a radical commitment of researchers that ensures genuine participation in all stages of the research process and thinking about the research task also as a tool to transform power structures and ensure epistemic justice.