The Power Threat Meaning Framework

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2020

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) in 2018, is an attempt to address the question of how we might understand what Harry Stack Sullivan called 'problems in living' other than by using psychiatric diagnostic systems. How might we best conceptualize emotional distress and behaviour which might concern or trouble others? We describe the context within which the PTMF was developed and explain some of its key elements before giving an overview of the articles in this special issue.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

This article summarizes the results of a recently published project to develop a conceptual system incorporating social, psychological, and biological factors as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis. The principles underlying the Power Threat Meaning Framework are briefly described, together with its major features and differences from diagnostic approaches. These include the assumptions that what may be called psychiatric symptoms are understandable responses to often very adverse environments and that these responses, both evolved and socially influenced, serve protective functions and demonstrate human capacity for meaning making and agency. We describe how the elements of the Power Threat Meaning Framework interact to restore links between environmental threats and threat responses, and to enable us to outline some probabilistic Provisional General Patterns, grouped by personal, social, and cultural meaning, describing what people do, not the "disorders" they "have." We conclude by outlining some implications of the Framework for narrative construction and for thinking about distress across cultures.

2019

The British Psychological Society’s Clinical Division (2018) recently published The Power Threat Meaning Framework, an evidence-supported discussion document to promote consideration of alternatives to functional psychiatric diagnosis. I summarize the general content and approach of the framework as a meaning-focused alternative to the psychiatric classification system, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). I comment on the utility of the Power Threat Meaning Framework for the conversational practice of a nonmedicalized approach to counselling.

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2020

The "Power Threat Meaning Framework" attempts to provide a coherent basis for conceptualizing clinical distress, troubled and troubling behavior in ways that avoid attributing it to unproven and hypothetical biological deficits, and that do not invoke insufficiently valid and reliable diagnostic categories. At the same time, the Framework retains a role for biology and identifies general patterns of distress. This paper describes the concept of meaning within the Framework, identifies some of its influences, and discusses its relationship to other concepts of meaning and to other aspects of the Framework.

Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2019

The British Psychological Society’s Clinical Division (2018) recently published The Power Threat Meaning Framework, an evidence-supported discussion document to promote consideration of alternatives to functional psychiatric diagnosis. I summarize the general content and approach of the framework as a meaning-focused alternative to the psychiatric classification system, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). I comment on the utility of the Power Threat Meaning Framework for the conversational practice of a nonmedicalized approach to counselling

Perspectives in Public Health, 2023

Aims: To propose that much of the language and concepts in public mental health is medicalised and to suggest that the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), can be a useful resource for those wishing to take a de-medicalising approach. Method: Examples of medicalisation are drawn from the literature and from practice and key constructs in the PTMF are explained, drawing from the report which presented its research base. Results: Examples of medicalisation in public mental health include: the uncritical use of psychiatric diagnostic categories; the ‘illness like any other’ approach in anti-stigma campaigns; and the implicit privileging of biology in the biopsychosocial model. The negative operations of power in society are seen as posing threats to human needs and people make sense of such situations in varied ways though there are some commonalities. This gives rise to culturally available and bodily enabled threat responses which serve a variety of functions. From a medicalised perspective these responses to threat are characteristically seen as ‘symptoms’ of underlying disorders. The PTMF is both a conceptual framework and a practical tool that can be used by individuals, groups and communities. Conclusion: Consistent with social epidemiological research, prevention efforts should focus on preventing adversity rather than ‘disorders’ but the added value of the PTMF is that varied problems can be understood in an integrated manner as responses to a variety of threats whose functions could be met in different ways. Its message that mental distress is a response to adversity is comprehensible to the public and can be communicated in an accessible way.

Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTM), 2020

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) is a recent, cutting edge concept that was developed over the course of five years of study by a group of researchers from the British Psychological Association (Johnstone & Boyle, 2018). Their goal was to find an alternative to the biomedical model and the traditional Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) model for helping people experiencing mental distress (Johnstone & Boyle, 2018). First, I will describe the concepts that make up the PTMF, then compare the PTMF to mainstream biomedical approaches. Then I will describe its benefits and limitations and the reasons why it may not receive general support. Finally, the implications for social work practice will be discussed.

FPID Bulletin: The Bulletin of the Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Easy read summary■The Power Threat Meaning Framework was written to help make sense of distress in terms of people’s experiences. It asks ‘what has happened to you?’, NOT ‘what is wrong with you?’■The Power Threat Meaning Framework could be useful for people working with people with learning disabilities and autism■We describe how we have adapted the Power Threat Meaning Framework for use in learning disability services.■More resources need to be developed with people who use these servicesThe Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) was launched by the British Psychological Society in 2018 to offer an alternative classification system to pseudo-scientific practises of psychiatric diagnosis that regard certain ways of thinking, feeling and behaving as ‘symptoms’ of unevidenced ‘mental disorders’. In this article, we summarise what appealed to us about the PTMF and we describe some of the work we have undertaken to highlight how the Framework can be applied to support understanding of t...

Clinical Psychology Forum

The project group reflects on the responses to the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) one year after publication. The group welcomes the interest shown in the document, and takes this opportunity to clarify some points, reflect on and learn from others, and suggest areas for future development.