Can Phenomenology Be Liberatory? Phenomenology IS Liberatory! Motherhood, Mental Health, and Research Praxis

The paper is a culmination of three researchers working together to develop a research project studying maternal mental health. This project was initially intended to entail descriptive phenomenological methods to explore the role of community and context in the experience of mental health among new mothers, particularly those with reduced access to formal mental health resources. As the researchers developed their ideas, theoretical and methodological discussions revealed challenges inherent in a project in which the description of a phenomenon might entail changing it. In this paper, we draw on classical and contemporary phenomenology (including critical phenomenology) and place this work in dialogue with the tradition of liberation psychology. We consider whether the nature of lived experience is such that to commit to detailed understanding of any phenomenon is to address how it is created and how it may change. We suggest that addressing the experience with rigorous, contextually sensitive phenomenological methods, such as photovoice, leads to a phenomenology that is not just critical, but liberatory. We discuss the parallels between phenomenology and liberation psychology and consider the ways that insights from liberation psychology might help to expand the reach and impact of phenomenology.