In this published response to five studies in the present special issue, all representing qualitative research in the field of mental health, this research is approached as cultural and social practice. The five studies are looked upon as informative examples of research activity in mental health, and it is asked how that particular field is conceptualised as a form of human activity, how the authors position themselves in relation to the field, why they ask the questions they seek to answer and how epistemic queries concerning knowing and not-knowing manifest themselves and are addressed in the studies. The paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the uses of qualitative methodology in mental health research by explicating some of the differences and some of the similarities between the pieces of research at hand.