Social Research As a Painful (but Rewarding) Self-Examination

Re-Reading Georges Devereux’s Psychoanalytical Notion of Radical Subjectivity

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2386145
AutoresAngela Kuehner (Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main and German Youth Institute, Munich, Germany)
Ano2016
Volume22
Fascículo9
Páginas725-734
Data de publicação2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1077800416658068
OpenAlexW2504125316
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas12

As early as 1967, the French ethno-psychoanalyst Georges Devereux proposed adopting a radical perspective on researchers' subjectivity to the entire field of "behavioral sciences." Whenever our research confronts us with other human beings and thus with ourselves, he argues, we are confronted with anxiety. Instead of fighting against this anxiety and other painful irritations that go hand in hand with any social research, Devereux's proposal can thus be understood as an invitation to work with this anxiety and use it to gain deeper insights. This article suggests that we re-read Devereux in the light of the contemporary discussions on reflexivity and subjectivity based on (a) an outline and short interpretation of Devereux's central argument, (b) a subjective re-reading by the author herself, and (c) an examination of some contemporary readings by other qualitative researchers

Anxiety · Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Perspective (graphical · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Qualitative research · Reading (process · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Data Analysis and Archiving · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Medicine · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Philosophy · Social Psychology