Childhood-Grounded Explanations for Personal Troubles

Social Problems Work in Radio Counseling

Bibliographic Data

ID2049558
AuthorsNataliya Thell (0000-0001-5319-8426, Lund University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume43
Issue2
Pages257-283
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSymbolic Interaction (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0195-6086 • E-ISSN: 1533-8665
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/symb.443
OpenAlexW2964779411
LanguageEN
References cited48

This paper examines how images of unfortunate childhoods are invoked to make sense of psychological problems in adulthood. I use conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis to study a Swedish radio program in which a psychotherapist talks to people about their personal troubles. The findings suggest that, on one hand, the image of an unfortunate childhood was used as an explanatory framework for individuals' problematic experiences. On the other hand, the childhood-grounded reasoning, applied to individual cases, illustrated the explanatory framework and reaffirmed it as a commonsense way of reasoning about personal troubles

Categorization · Conversation · Conversation analysis · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Grounded theory · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology · Social Psychology

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