Psychoanalytic Informed Qualitative Research: Theoretical Methodological Contributions
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Abstract
The present article advances a theoretical and methodological reflection on psychoanalytic informed qualitative research. The goal is to describe the conceptualisation of a methodological device coherent with the ontological and epistemological assumptions of psychoanalysis. In other words, the device is based on the concept of a “non-transparent” research subject, who does not make his nature known to either himself or others. Therefore, the need arises for the development of devices which provide access to the subject, in order to grasp not just the explicit dimensions of signification, but also their pre-conscious and unconscious counterparts. A conceptual research was conducted on countertransference among psychoanalysts, resorting to free association narrative interviews (FANI). This study is covered in the article, so as to illustrate the identification of theoretical and methodological problems related to the usage of this type of qualitative research. An analysis of the interviews conducted by the research group, for the conceptual research, is used as an example, to illustrate the specific features of the employed device. The device is based on the dynamics created within the group and on the emergence of interpretative lines of the unconscious subjective dimensions of the interviewee, as they relate to the topics under analysis. Starting from a theoretical framework on thought work, we highlight three processes supporting the procedure used for analysing the interviews: negative capability, alpha dream work and selected fact.
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