His research interests are in critical psychology and social constructionist approaches in mental health, particularly in relation to 'delusions' and paranoia.  He was a co-author of Deconstructing Psychopathology (Parker et al., 1995).  More recently he has examined the relationship between conceptualisations of paranoia in mental health settings and wider culture (e.g. the 'politics of paranoia', Surveillance & Society, 2008). 

 

With Ian Tucker and Darren Ellis (both at UEL), he has recently begun a collaborative qualitative research project investigating how members of the public experience surveillance technologies in their everyday lives.  A separate area of interest is critically reviewing the use of psychological knowledge in national security-related interrogation and surveillance (e.g. Harper, 2004b, 2007) a subject he has discussed on BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind and Document programme.

 

Select publications

• Harper, D.  (in press) The social context of 'paranoia'.  For M.Rapley, J.Dillon & J. Moncrieff (eds) De-Medicalising Misery.   London:  Palgrave Macmillan
• Cromby, J. & Harper, D.  (2009).  Paranoia: a social account.  Theory & Psychology, 19(3):335-361.
• Harper, D.  (2008). The politics of paranoia: Paranoid positioning and conspiratorial narratives in the surveillance society. Surveillance & Society, 5(1), 1-32. http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles5(1)/paranoia.pdf
• Harper, D.  (2007).  The complicity of psychology in the security state.  In R. Roberts (ed). Just War: Psychology, Terrorism and Iraq (pp.15-45).  Ross-on-Wye:  PCCS books.
• Cromby, J. & Harper, D. (2005).  Paranoia and social inequality.  Clinical Psychology Forum, 153, 17-21.
• Harper, D.J. (2004a).  Delusions and discourse: Moving beyond the constraints of the modernist paradigm.  Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 11, 55-64.
• Harper, D. (2004b).  Psychology and the 'war on terror'.  Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling & Psychotherapy, 4, 1-10.