A critical reappraisal of a social form in psychiatric care settings: The multidisciplinary team meeting as a paradigm case

Critical analysis can be used to examine potential inequalities and interferences with freedom in psychiatric nursing contexts. Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTM) evoke a sense of egalitarian multiparty cooperation, when underlying philosophical, ideological assumptions and realities can operate to contradict consciously held beliefs. Traditional approaches toward structural aspects of organizations are built on several conventional and taken-for-granted assumptions. Deconstruction and critical analysis can create alternate ways of thinking about fixed aspects of practice. The MDTM can be analyzed through different images. Underlying realities about the disempowerment of nurses and patients in the team structure can be shown through such analysis.