[Qualitative research in social psychiatry--methods and applications].

History and perspectives of qualitative research are presented together with an overview of the major methods in their application in the field of social psychiatry. Methods for analyzing subjective points of view (various forms of interviews), for describing everyday life and routines of actions in and outside of institutions (participant observation, conversation analysis), and for interpreting in-depth-structures (objective hermeneutics, theoretical coding) are discussed. Triangulation of different methods, strategies for assessing interpretations, and findings and processual evaluation of qualitative research are outlined as perspectives.