Abstract

Fundamental differences in the philosophy of history as an academic discipline are briefly explored, primarily from two perspectives. The traditional psychiatric and mental health nursing historian objectively uses primary sources in order to be able to make ‘truth’ claims about the past. The post-modern psychiatric nursing historian, on the other hand, constructs truth claims, rather than discovers them, and in the process of doing so creates historical discourses that are different from the past. To the postmodern psychiatric nursing historian, all histories are fictions, created with the use of imagination, and have characteristics that are similar to the literary constructions that are more traditionally identified as fiction. A variety of literature is used in order to explore such claims, and the conclusion is drawn that, with caution and careful attention to the rigorous use of historical method, fiction can be used as a valid source for historical research in psychiatric and mental health nursing.