Fall 2002—Volume 26 Number 2 123 articles THE DIALECTIC OF FRIENDSHIP FOR PEOPLE WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES ▼ KATHERINE M. BOYDELL, BRENDA M. GLADSTONE & ELAINE STASIULIS CRAWFORD Katherine M. Boydell, MHSc, PhD, is a Sociologist and Health Systems Research Scientist, Community Health Systems Resource Group, an Associate Scientist, Population Health Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, and an Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto. Brenda M. Gladstone, BA, MSc (cand.), is a Research Coordinator, Community Health Systems Resource Group, The Hospital for Sick Children. Elaine Stasiulis Crawford, MA, is a Research Consultant. Address correspondence to Katherine M. Boydell, CHSRG, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada. Tel.: (416) 813-8469. Fax: (416) 813-7258. E-mail: katherine.boydell@sickkids.ca. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Ellen Fawcett. Her thoughts, perceptions and insights into the world of friendship among people with psychiatric disabilities were an invaluable contribution to this study as was her friendship an inspiration to all who knew her. This project was funded by the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. In the psychiatric literature, the meaning and importance of friendship has remained largely unexplored, subsumed under the rubric of social support or viewed as a component of community integration. Twenty-one qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals suffering from psychiatric dis- abilities focusing on the meaning of friendship as they described it. Analysis revealed the contrasts, contradiction and paradox of friendship for this group of people. The ongoing struggles of people with psychiatric disabilities regarding the need to connect with others and have friends, and conversely, the need to be alone and to withdraw from others, was highlighted. T his is life really, you know, people having relationships with other people. —Anne Background Having friends is considered a normal and desirable aspect of people’s lives (Solano, 1986). From our earliest child- hood our ability to make and keep friends is considered an important part of our social life. Friendship provides an opportunity to meet developmental needs for attachment, companionship and emotion (Hays, 1988; Wright, 1984). Friends provide a reference point to measure and judge us by (Rubin, 1985) and play a meaningful role in the creation and maintenance of social reality (Hess, 1972; Jerrome, 1984). Our very sense of ourselves is connected to our ability to negotiate the world of friendship (Rubin, 1985; Tesch, 1983). To be without friends in a culture that values friendship is cause for concern, a symptom of personal in- adequacy (Solano, 1986). Friends contribute to positive personal adaptation and act as buffers, mediating the effects of stresses that do occur (Hays, 1988). The existing literature on friendship clearly documents the bene- ficial effect of friendship, demonstrating that friends can significantly contribute to satisfaction and overall quality of life, ability to cope with stress and vulnera- bility to illness (Hays, 1985, 1988; O’Connor, 1992). The significance of friendship in people’s lives is undeni- able (Snyder & Smith, 1986). Friendship is often regarded ambigu- ously because unlike other relation- ships, it has no formal legal obligations or standard cultural customs (Caroline, 1993; Wiseman, 1986). The term friend is used casually in everyday conversa- This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.